She understood that her body was being exploited as currency and that in a crippling patriarchal society, her choices are extremely limited. She understood the influence of ego in men’s decisions and came to fearlessly reject it.

Ironically, it is this same diminishing self confidence that Firdaus is able to identify in men, particularly those of assumed higher class. How her own self confidence is rocked through Firdaus’ perception of her. One of the most powerful aspects of the book is how El Saadawi herself related to Firdaus. El Saadawi said that her image never left her after writing Woman At Point Zero, even after her death. True to the character Firdaus would have been (she was executed in 1975) the language is very straight forward- there is a shaking clarity in it, especially toward the end.įirdaus’ confidence and conviction against the backdrop of her life story is extremely striking. It will take a few days to understand what my own thoughts on it are. The repeated disappointment really impacted me. The repeated attempts to find her mother’s eyes in other people’s. There are repeated scenes of Firdaus finding herself literally in the dark, looking to someone she trusts to save her. The repeated themes are both haunting and thought provoking. A powerful, haunting story and conviction of character The woman El Sawaadi writes about has become formidable- uncompromisingly principled, even if disillusioned. A lot of the story is very heart breaking, but ultimately what comes across is Firdaus’ growing refusal to be permanently subdued.

Through her experiences, she learns how to navigate male-female power dynamics as a successful sex worker. How she is abused as a commodity- by an uncle, by her husband, a number of men. How she discovers sexual pleasure and has that taken from her through FGM. We learn through her descriptions how she struggled to reconcile her father’s callous actions with his religion. By the time we meet Firdaus, she has already been sentenced to death for the murder of a pimp.Īn Arab woman from a poor farming community, Firdaus plainly recounts her life and critical moments.

It was written by Nawal El Saadawi through her real life case studies of Egyptian Women in prison in the early 1970s. Woman At Point Zero is a powerful translated novel, narrated as a first hand account of Firdaus’ life.

Firdaus nawal el saadawi