Nawal Saadawi's "Woman at Point Zero"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, throughout the world today, in different ways and for different reasons, fiction, film, politics, the Internet and the mass media have taken a dim view of the particularly inhumane treatment of many Muslim women within southern areas, such as the Africa, where Islam is practiced. The paper then points out that the Egyptian woman novelist Nawal El Saadawi, who is also a physician and a feminist, has written many fictional and non-fictional works about women's unequal treatment by men in Islamic societies. "Woman at Point Zero" (1998 and first published in 1975 ) is a stark, disturbing and poignant novel. The paper relates the plot of Saadawi's story about the protagonist Firdaus, an Egyptian-born perpetually abused woman, who out of desperation becomes a prostitute and murders a pimp.

From the Paper:

"Moreover, Firdaus herself is neither an evil person nor a hardened criminal (or a criminal at all, except in the sense of having also been driven by desperation into being a prostitute); Firdaus is simply a chronically abused, rejected, degraded and humiliated 20th century Muslim woman in Egypt who arrives at "Ground Zero" on one especially unfortunate day. Within this story, Firdaus's degrading experiences both exemplify and underscore the degradation of Muslim women like herself generally, whose repressive and cruel societies under male-dominated fundamentalist Islam make it impossible for such women to catch a break in life."

Sample of Sources Used:

• El Saadawi, Nawal. Woman at Point Zero. Sherif Hetata (Trans.). London: Zed Books Ltd., 1998.
• Esposito, John, and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad. Islam, Gender, and Social Change, Oxford University Press, 1997. xii.
• "Read an Extract from Woman at Point Zero (first published 1975)". African Review of Books.com. Retrieved May 7, 2005, from: <http://www. africanreviewofbooks.com/100best/100bestsamples/saadawi.html>.

More papers on Nawal Saadawi's "Woman at Point Zero":

• Analytical Essay # 136669 : "Point Zero in Nawal El Saadawi's, 'Woman at Point-Zero'"
• Analytical Essay # 60566 : "Women at Point Zero"
• Book Review # 136672 : "Point-Zero in Nawal El-Saadawi's Work"

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