In this novel, money and love are shown as antithetical objects. Instead of having money and love, the couples in this novel seem to be afflicted by money at the expense of love. For instance, our protagonist admits to having stolen an unspeakable amount of money from a man, and when she meets her American friends, they are also fighting over money. In that case, the husband tries to murder his wife to inherited her fortune, but instead, he is found out and killed.
Another concerning connection between money and love is the use of humans as currency in a sex slave trade. This shows that women are often considered a kind of currency. Zala, the crime boss, shows this again and again. He represents the patriarchal oppression of women through objectification. He enjoys objectifying women through mistreatment and torture, dominating them as if to show that he doesn't respect their human worth.
On the other side of that horror story, there are feminist academicians hoping to expose the brokenness of the world and its tendencies to mistreat women. Zala is actually Lisbeth's father, which is insightful, because that means that he is literally the patriarch of the novel. How does she fare by her father's treatment? He shoots her and leaves her for dead. The patriarchy in the novel hates women with murderous rage.
