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A review by salemlockheart
Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
5.0
woman at point zero was a harrowing yet beautifully written novel. warning for minor and major spoilers just in case.
from birth, firdaus was destined to a life of suffering. that was how she'd been raised. she'd been poor, struggled, brushed off, and shoved aside. as a child, she'd been treated as a burden, and that idea grew with her into adulthood. she was considered an ugly and insolent child.
“I was filled with a deep hatred for the mirror. From that moment I never looked into it again. Even when I stood in front of it, I was not seeing myself [...]"
firdaus lived a life of brutality, rape, molestation, hunger, and pain. there was never a point where she deserved it, ever. despite what everyone tells her throughout the novel. i found myself rooting for just one person to treat her kindly. one person to give her an inch, so she could experience a sliver of happiness.
by the time she's eighteen, her aunt and uncle are already in talks of selling her off to his brother— her uncle who beat, raped, and abused her. eventually, she grows tired and sets to leave, where she meets a man at his job. the man had asked her a simple question: “Do you prefer oranges or tangerines?”
firdaus' entire life had always been others making the decision for her. she'd never even had the time or been given the choice to consider if she enjoyed tangerines more than oranges. [the man's] simple act of asking which fruit she preferred; something other people considered to be an innate act of kindness— was something firdaus had never experienced before. that was the life of suffering she'd lived.
that same man that had been her first taste of kindness, had also been one of her first tastes of a worse brutality than the one she'd experienced at the hand of her uncle. throughout the novel, this is a reoccurring pattern. one normally by the hands of men. firdaus will experience the most minuscule amount of kindness, only to find out she's been used for someone else's own gain.
“A man does not know a woman’s value, Firdaus. She is the one who determines her value. The higher you price yourself, the more he will realize what you are really worth, and be prepared to pay with the means at his disposal.”
firdaus is a victim to her society. a young woman pushed into prostitution (under the false pretense of female empowerment) and taken advantage of by a plethora of men & the woman who had sworn to rescue her.
“I came to realize that a female employee is more afraid of losing her job than a prostitute is of losing her life. [...] I now knew that all of us were prostitutes who sold themselves at varying prices, and that an expensive prostitute was better than a cheap one.”
this novel is heartbreaking. i could write about it forever, and ever, and ever, and ever. there's so much to say. so much to analyze about everyone's behavior and treatment of firdaus, but it's hard to do that without spoiling the entire novel.
“He wanted to take a prostitute to this important personality’s bed, like any common pimp would do, and yet talk in dignified tones of patriotism and moral principles.”
this is not an enjoyable read by any means, but it is a required one. you will be uncomfortable. you will feel disgusted, and you will shed tears for firdaus that she never shed for herself.
“I have triumphed over both life and death because I no longer desire to live, nor do I any longer fear to die. I want nothing. I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. Therefore I am free."
from birth, firdaus was destined to a life of suffering. that was how she'd been raised. she'd been poor, struggled, brushed off, and shoved aside. as a child, she'd been treated as a burden, and that idea grew with her into adulthood. she was considered an ugly and insolent child.
“I was filled with a deep hatred for the mirror. From that moment I never looked into it again. Even when I stood in front of it, I was not seeing myself [...]"
firdaus lived a life of brutality, rape, molestation, hunger, and pain. there was never a point where she deserved it, ever. despite what everyone tells her throughout the novel. i found myself rooting for just one person to treat her kindly. one person to give her an inch, so she could experience a sliver of happiness.
by the time she's eighteen, her aunt and uncle are already in talks of selling her off to his brother— her uncle who beat, raped, and abused her. eventually, she grows tired and sets to leave, where she meets a man at his job. the man had asked her a simple question: “Do you prefer oranges or tangerines?”
firdaus' entire life had always been others making the decision for her. she'd never even had the time or been given the choice to consider if she enjoyed tangerines more than oranges. [the man's] simple act of asking which fruit she preferred; something other people considered to be an innate act of kindness— was something firdaus had never experienced before. that was the life of suffering she'd lived.
that same man that had been her first taste of kindness, had also been one of her first tastes of a worse brutality than the one she'd experienced at the hand of her uncle. throughout the novel, this is a reoccurring pattern. one normally by the hands of men. firdaus will experience the most minuscule amount of kindness, only to find out she's been used for someone else's own gain.
“A man does not know a woman’s value, Firdaus. She is the one who determines her value. The higher you price yourself, the more he will realize what you are really worth, and be prepared to pay with the means at his disposal.”
firdaus is a victim to her society. a young woman pushed into prostitution (under the false pretense of female empowerment) and taken advantage of by a plethora of men & the woman who had sworn to rescue her.
“I came to realize that a female employee is more afraid of losing her job than a prostitute is of losing her life. [...] I now knew that all of us were prostitutes who sold themselves at varying prices, and that an expensive prostitute was better than a cheap one.”
this novel is heartbreaking. i could write about it forever, and ever, and ever, and ever. there's so much to say. so much to analyze about everyone's behavior and treatment of firdaus, but it's hard to do that without spoiling the entire novel.
“He wanted to take a prostitute to this important personality’s bed, like any common pimp would do, and yet talk in dignified tones of patriotism and moral principles.”
this is not an enjoyable read by any means, but it is a required one. you will be uncomfortable. you will feel disgusted, and you will shed tears for firdaus that she never shed for herself.
“I have triumphed over both life and death because I no longer desire to live, nor do I any longer fear to die. I want nothing. I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. Therefore I am free."