Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi

In what ways are power and control significant throughout Firdaus’ life, and how does she utilize this power and control?

Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero is a significantly direct, sharp-cutting novel. It gives rise to some extreme emotions of agitation and outrage towards the nature of humans, in particular men and their maltreatment of women. This novel left me shocked, upset and angry at not only the antagonists in the book, but also society and the blind eye it so often turns towards abuse. Woman at Point Zero, as the title hints, deals with the struggles of a woman and her fight for freedom and independence in a land that shackles her with misogynistic mores and sexism. Power and control is undeniably a major theme throughout the novel, and Firdaus’ struggle to attain it is certainly a captivating one.

The Novel deals with the trials and tribulations of a young woman in Egypt, abandoned, betrayed and abused by all the men she encounters in her life, eventually leading to her own death. Firdaus tells us how “every single man I did get to know filled me with but one desire: to life my hand and bring it smashing down on his face.” And she goes on to tell her story. The reader is introduced to Firdaus in the first chapter of the novel through the descriptions of a psychiatrist with a burning curiosity and desire to speak with the infamous Firdaus. The psychiatrist has only heard hearsay of Firdaus, and based on this, feels the need to speak with her. Firdaus is on death row, convicted of murder, more importantly: the murder of a man. After several attempts to meet Firdaus, the psychiatrist is finally asked to speak with her. Firdaus’ story is a shocking, cold-hard factual one. Her courage and drive are admirab...

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...e punishment allotted to her without hesitation. She is finally free from “our wants, our hopes, our fears that enslave us” . Upon being told there is hope of her release, she states that she has no desire to be released. Perhaps Firdaus’ most powerful statement is as follows, “Everybody has to die. I prefer to die for a crime I have committed rather than to die for one of the crimes which you have committed.” , seizing final control and full power over her very own life, accepting her death for a doing of her own rather than by the abuse and maltreatment of a man.

Bibliography

• El Saadawi, Nawal. Woman at Point Zero. Trans. Sherif Hetata. London & New York: Zed Books, 1983

• "Review: Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi." Amy Reads. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.

• "Woman at Point Zero." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.