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Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi Sherif Hetata Books

Download As PDF : Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi Sherif Hetata Books

Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi Sherif Hetata Books

While some people have complaints about the rawness of this writing (as it is definitely not the most polished of Nawal El Saadawi's work), it is an amazing piece of Arab feminist writing, that addresses complex issues like female genital mutilation and prostitution. Strongly recommend this for anyone taking a class dealing with Arabic Culture (specifically in Egypt) or Women in the Arab World. It's important while reading to remember that the text was heavily edited by publishers and Saadawi herself to more palatable for the Western view, and that several chapters and passages condemning western culture have been removed, leading to a loss of several important themes and motifs.


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Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi Sherif Hetata Books Reviews

Best writing is generally good. Worst overly melodramatic and depressing.
El Sadaawi's novel is a powerful, poetic, and poignantly evocative. You will breeze through this book in a day.
I demolished this book in a sitting. I loved it! It is a very sad story but questions how we value ourselves as women, how life can be inherently transactional and what values we hold important.
Reaffirmation of something I already learned, accepted, and sadly lived with... The true about the nature of men, marriage, and all the other morality invented by men to oppress women... Even now.
The story takes place in the early 1970s. The author, Dr. Saadawi is a psychiatrist and consultant for the women's prison. A young woman named Firdaus is scheduled to be executed for fatally stabbing her pimp. Thus far Firdaus has refused to speak to anyone, but Dr. Saadawi breaks through and thus a novel is born.

Firdaus is born to a poor family. Her parents die and she goes to live with her perverted uncle. He gets married and wants to be rid of Firdaus so he sends her to boarding school. She finishes her secondary school exams placing 7th in all of Egypt.

Her uncle and his wife decide that sending her to university would be a waste of time as there aren't that many job opportunities available. So, they marry her off to a sheik, who's supposed to be a real catch. He's plenty old enough to be her grandfather, and prone to tirades and violence that cause his repulsive facial sores to ooze pusty goo. Prior to this "arranged" marriage Firdaus contemplates escaping, but realizing how limited her options are acquiesces. Eventually, the marriage becomes unbearable and she flees only to be "rescued" by a pimp. She goes through a series of pimps, and one madam, before having a major epiphany.

Firdaus realizes she has been selling herself short. Drastically raising her prostitution rate makes her a hot commodity. Being a product of American pop culture myself this came as no great surprise to me. After all, some of my compatriots have been known to spend as much as $50,000 for a handbag. This concept of setting the price too high in order to raise the product's perceived worth in the eyes of the consumer is known in the advertising industry as "prestige pricing."

Firdaus sets herself up as a freelance pro. She has a nice apartment and picks and chooses her clients, and has free-time to pursue intellectual interests. Before long she has another major revelation after a male friend, whom she believes respects her as an astute liberated woman, lets her know that she's "just a whore." She then decides to get an "honest" 9 to 5 job working for the government. In doing so she must drastically reduce her standard of living. She is in for a rude awakening as she discovers the subculture of office politics. Not only did she make far more money as a prostitute she got more respect. Putting out is one of the unwritten rules of the job description.

Coincidentally, two nights before I read this book I saw a TV show about one of Nevada's legal brothels. The pimp, or CEO, boasted that their top "girl" grossed half a million dollars last year. That's more than 10 times what the average teacher makes (if not for the union they would make even less) and five times that of a nurse practitioner (HMOs don't mind paying this because it's still far cheaper than hiring MDs). Firdaus' story takes place about 35 years ago and I know there have been a lot of positive changes since then, but I wonder how many of them are cosmetic.

Two days after reading Firdaus' story I came across an article about the human organ "business." (Buying and selling organs is illegal in the US, but entrepreneurs circumvent this bete noire by charging "service" and "handling" fees. Organ procurers can strip a body much like a car, fetching $250,000 through legal channels!) In China harvesting death row inmates to sell their organs is reported to be a booming business. Regardless of how one feels about the death penalty, once profit is factored into the equation look out! So, if Firdaus were executed today in China her body could continue to be a commodity post-mortem.

This novella bears uncanny similarities to Lao She's "Crescent Moon." It's a short story in an anthology by the same name. A widowed mother is forced to prostitute to support her daughter then the daughter ends up prostituting to support the mother. Neither of them is named but, the daughters observations are very similar to Firdaus', so similar I began to wonder if Saadawi has read "Crescent Moon." Lao She was a casualty of the Cultural Revolution in 1966.

The motif of the stalking and judgemental green eyes can also be found in Li Ang's 1969 short story, "Curvaceous Dolls" that appears in The Colombia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature edited by Joseph S.M. Lau and Howard Goldblatt. Li Ang also wrote The Butcher's Wife. "Curvaceous Dolls" is about a young wife's saphic longings, not unlike Firdaus' feelings for Miss Iqbal.
I had read many books about life of women in Afghanistan, life's of ordinary regular women of lower class. But this books description of the life of an orphan, of a prostitute gives you a completely different understanding of the gender problems in countries with poverty. It is a sad story, but it does mobilize you to do something for the gender issue, and it arouses your inner desire to be an activist.

It's a pity the writer is already quiet advanced in age and never succeeded to be a politician in Egypt.

Gender mainstreaming government should be for every country!
As I read this short story of Firdaus a woman on Death Roll in Egypt, I was struck by the number of books that this brought to mind.
The format a single reporter interview that tells a transformation story was in part like Interview with a Vampire or
Story of Little Big Man .
The tone of book reminds me of Camus the stranger , and also Celine’s Death on the Installment plan. Her philosophy on freedom about speaking truth in the face of your own execution no longer being fearful strongly reminded me of Anna Quangel and Otto Quangel story in Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada all excellent books so is this one rather short only a little over a hundred pages but I think it earned 5 stars for unique insight and message.
While some people have complaints about the rawness of this writing (as it is definitely not the most polished of Nawal El Saadawi's work), it is an amazing piece of Arab feminist writing, that addresses complex issues like female genital mutilation and prostitution. Strongly recommend this for anyone taking a class dealing with Arabic Culture (specifically in Egypt) or Women in the Arab World. It's important while reading to remember that the text was heavily edited by publishers and Saadawi herself to more palatable for the Western view, and that several chapters and passages condemning western culture have been removed, leading to a loss of several important themes and motifs.