Pervasive Sexism and Oppression
Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero tells the story of Firdaus—an Egyptian woman on death row in the 1970s for killing a pimp—who suffers oppression and abuse from men for her entire life. As Saadawi narrates from Firdaus’s perspective, every single man in her life seeks to abuse or exploit her based on her female identity. Although Firdaus is a natural survivor, her story is unrelentingly bleak as she goes from oppressive…
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Prostitution and Transactional Relationships
Although Firdaus (an Egyptian woman in the 1970s) is smart and once excelled as a student, she spends most of her adult life as a prostitute, first by coercion and later by choice. Because of her role as a prostitute, the men who pay for her services hypocritically scorn her for trading sex for money. However, even when Firdaus leaves prostitution behind, she discovers that society expects women to trade their bodies for various…
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Fear and Survival
After decades of sexism and abuse, Firdaus, an Egyptian woman in the 1970s, sees the whole world as a conflict between men and women, “masters” and “slaves,” governed by fear. As a child and then as a wife, professional woman, and prostitute, Firdaus lives in constant fear of men and what they can do to her, which keeps her in a subservient position. However, when Firdaus kills a man who exploits her, she feels…
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Religious Hypocrisy
In Egypt, religion plays a prominent role both in society and in government. Firdaus, an Egyptian woman on death row for killing a pimp, grows up surrounded by religious men who, in spite of their moralistic pretenses, frequently exploit and abuse her. Although such figures should theoretically be a source of protection and safety for women, they prove to be as manipulative and oppressive as anyone else, concerned primarily with their own self-interests. Firdaus’s…
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