Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi HOME "Woman at Point Zero" tells the story of Firdaus, a young Egyptian woman who is born into poverty and suffers from a difficult childhood marked by abuse, neglect, and discrimination. Firdaus is forced into prostitution at a young age and endures years of exploitation and abuse in the sex industry.Through Firdaus's voice, the novel also explores the themes of agency, resistance, and liberation.
Nawal El Saadawi excerpts from Woman at Point Zero "Then she spoke of her childhood, how she had been brought up by a mother who hated her and a father who was indifferent. She had been born into poverty and her parents had never been able to provide for her. She had been married off at a young age to a man she did not love, and she had suffered years of abuse and neglect at his hands. She had turned to prostitution as a means of survival, but even that had brought her little relief. She had been exploited and mistreated by men her entire life, and she had come to believe that there was no escape from her misery. As she spoke, I realized that Firdaus was not just telling me her story; she was also telling the story of countless other women who had suffered as she had. She was giving voice to their pain and their struggles, and she was challenging the patriarchal system that had oppressed them for generations. In that moment, I felt a deep sense of solidarity with Firdaus and with all the women who had been silenced and marginalized by society. I realized that their stories needed to be told, and that their voices needed to be heard." […] “Yet not for a single moment did I have any doubts about my own integrity and honour as a woman. I knew that my profession had been invented by men, and that men were in control of both our worlds, the one on earth, and the one in heaven. That men force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body is that of a wife. All women are prostitutes of one kind or another.” […] “I read love stories and love poems. But I preferred books written about rulers. I read about a ruler whose female servants and concubines were as numerous as his army, and about another whose only interests in life were wine, women, and whipping his slaves. A third cared little for women, but enjoyed wars, killing, and torturing men. Another of these rulers loved food, money and hoarding riches without end. Still another was possessed with such an admiration for himself and his greatness that for him no one else in the land existed. There was also a ruler so obsessed with plots and conspiracies that he spent all his time distorting the facts of history and trying to fool his people.I discovered that all these rulers were men. What they had in common was an avaricious and distorted personality, a never-ending appetite for money, sex and unlimited power. They were men who sowed corruption on the earth, and plundered their peoples, men endowed with loud voices, a capacity for persuasion, for choosing sweet words and shooting poisoned arrows. Thus, the truth about them was revealed only after their deaths, and as a result I discovered that history tended to repeat itself with a foolish obstinacy.” […] “I discovered that all these rulers were men. What they had in common was an avaricious and distorted personality, a never-ending appetite for money, sex and unlimited power. They were men who sowed corruption on the earth, and plundered their peoples, men endowed with loud voices, a capacity for persuasion, for choosing sweet words and shooting poisoned arrows. Thus, the truth about them was revealed only after their death, and as a result I discovered that history tended to repeat itself with a foolish obstinacy.” […] I came to realize that a female employee is more afraid of losing her job than a prostitute is of losing her life. An employee is scared of losing her job and becoming a prostitute because she does not understand that the prostitute’s life is in fact better than hers. And so she pays the price of her illusory fears with her life, her health, her body, and her mind. She pays the highest price for things of the lowest value. 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. I also knew that if I lost my job, all I would lose with it was the miserable salary, the contempt I could read every day in the eyes of the higher level executives when they looked at the lesser female officials, the humiliating pressure of male bodies on mine when I rode in the bus, and the long morning queue in front of a perpetually overflowing toilet.” […] -How is it possible to live? Life is so hard? -You must be harder than life, Firdaus. Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those who are harder than life itself. -But you are not hard, Sharifa, so how do you manage to live? -I am hard, terribly hard, Firdaus. -No, you are gentle and soft. -My skin is soft, but my heart is cruel, and my bite deadly. -Like snake? -Yes, exactly like a snake. Life is a snake. They are the same, Firdaus. If the snake realizes you are not a snake, it will bite you. And if life knows you have no sting, it will devour you.

Nawal El Saadawi HOME

"Woman at Point Zero" tells the story of Firdaus, a young Egyptian woman who is born into poverty and suffers from a difficult childhood marked by abuse, neglect, and discrimination. Firdaus is forced into prostitution at a young age and endures years of exploitation and abuse in the sex industry.Through Firdaus's voice, the novel also explores the themes of agency, resistance, and liberation.

Nawal El Saadawi

excerpts from

Woman at Point Zero

"Then she spoke of her childhood, how she had been brought up by a mother who hated her and a father who was indifferent. She had been born into poverty and her parents had never been able to provide for her. She had been married off at a young age to a man she did not love, and she had suffered years of abuse and neglect at his hands. She had turned to prostitution as a means of survival, but even that had brought her little relief. She had been exploited and mistreated by men her entire life, and she had come to believe that there was no escape from her misery.

As she spoke, I realized that Firdaus was not just telling me her story; she was also telling the story of countless other women who had suffered as she had. She was giving voice to their pain and their struggles, and she was challenging the patriarchal system that had oppressed them for generations.

In that moment, I felt a deep sense of solidarity with Firdaus and with all the women who had been silenced and marginalized by society. I realized that their stories needed to be told, and that their voices needed to be heard."

[…]
“Yet not for a single moment did I have any doubts about my own integrity and honour as a woman. I knew that my profession had been invented by men, and that men were in control of both our worlds, the one on earth, and the one in heaven. That men force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body is that of a wife. All women are prostitutes of one kind or another.”

[…]
“I read love stories and love poems. But I preferred books written about rulers. I read about a ruler whose female servants and concubines were as numerous as his army, and about another whose only interests in life were wine, women, and whipping his slaves. A third cared little for women, but enjoyed wars, killing, and torturing men. Another of these rulers loved food, money and hoarding riches without end. Still another was possessed with such an admiration for himself and his greatness that for him no one else in the land existed. There was also a ruler so obsessed with plots and conspiracies that he spent all his time distorting the facts of history and trying to fool his people.I discovered that all these rulers were men. What they had in common was an avaricious and distorted personality, a never-ending appetite for money, sex and unlimited power. They were men who sowed corruption on the earth, and plundered their peoples, men endowed with loud voices, a capacity for persuasion, for choosing sweet words and shooting poisoned arrows. Thus, the truth about them was revealed only after their deaths, and as a result I discovered that history tended to repeat itself with a foolish obstinacy.”

[…]
“I discovered that all these rulers were men. What they had in common was an avaricious and distorted personality, a never-ending appetite for money, sex and unlimited power. They were men who sowed corruption on the earth, and plundered their peoples, men endowed with loud voices, a capacity for persuasion, for choosing sweet words and shooting poisoned arrows. Thus, the truth about them was revealed only after their death, and as a result I discovered that history tended to repeat itself with a foolish obstinacy.”

[…]
I came to realize that a female employee is more afraid of losing her job than a prostitute is of losing her life. An employee is scared of losing her job and becoming a prostitute because she does not understand that the prostitute’s life is in fact better than hers. And so she pays the price of her illusory fears with her life, her health, her body, and her mind. She pays the highest price for things of the lowest value. 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. I also knew that if I lost my job, all I would lose with it was the miserable salary, the contempt I could read every day in the eyes of the higher level executives when they looked at the lesser female officials, the humiliating pressure of male bodies on mine when I rode in the bus, and the long morning queue in front of a perpetually overflowing toilet.”

[…]
-How is it possible to live? Life is so hard?
-You must be harder than life, Firdaus. Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those who are harder than life itself.
-But you are not hard, Sharifa, so how do you manage to live?
-I am hard, terribly hard, Firdaus.
-No, you are gentle and soft.
-My skin is soft, but my heart is cruel, and my bite deadly.
-Like snake?
-Yes, exactly like a snake. Life is a snake. They are the same, Firdaus. If the snake realizes you are not a snake, it will bite you. And if life knows you have no sting, it will devour you.