Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El-Saadawi

Download audio book for free.

Original Title: Woman at Point Zero

ISBN: 1783605944
ISBN13: 9781783605941
Autor: Nawal El-Saadawi/Sherif Hetata (Translator)
Rating: 3.2 of 5 stars (875) counts
Original Format: Paperback, 128 pages
Download Format: PDF, FB2, DJVU, iBook.
Published: November 15th 2015 / by Zed Books / (first published 1975)
Language:
Genre(s):
Fiction- 60 users
Cultural >Egypt- 53 users
Feminism- 44 users

Description:
Nawal El Saadawis highly acclaimed feminist novel, Woman at Point Zero, follows the life of
Firdaus, an Egyptian peasant girl, from her childhood of incomprehensible cruelty and neglect to
her end in a grimy Cairo prison cell.

From her earliest memories, Firdaus suffered at the hands of menfirst her abusive father, then
her violent, much older husband, to finally her deceitful boyfriend-turned-pimp. After a lifetime of
abuse, she at last takes drastic action against the males ruling her life.

Still as beautiful and cutting as it was when it was first published, this new edition will continue to
resonate powerfully with readers for years to come.

About Author:

Nawal El Saadawi (Arabic: ) was born in 1931, in a small village outside Cairo. Unusually, she and
her brothers and sisters were educated together, and she graduated from the University of Cairo
Medical School in 1955, specializing in psychiatry. For two years, she practiced as a medical
doctor, both at the university and in her native Tahla.
From 1963 until 1972, Saadawi worked as Director General for Public Health Education for the
Egyptian government. During this time, she also studied at Columbia University in New York,
where she received her Master of Public Health degree in 1966. Her first novel Memoirs of a
Woman Doctor was published in Cairo in 1958. In 1972, however, she lost her job in the Egyptian
government as a result of political pressure. The magazine, Health, which she had founded and
edited for more than three years, was closed down.
From 1973 to 1978 Saadawi worked at the High Institute of Literature and Science. It was at this
time that she began to write, in works of fiction and non-fiction, the books on the oppression of
Arab women for which she has become famous. Her most famous novel, Woman at Point Zero
was published in Beirut in 1973. It was followed in 1976 by God Dies by the Nile and in 1977 by
The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World.
In 1981 Nawal El Saadawi publicly criticized the one-party rule of President Anwar Sadat, and was
subsequently arrested and imprisoned. She was released one month after his assassination. In
1982, she established the Arab Women's Solidarity Association, which was outlawed in 1991.
When, in 1988, her name appeared on a fundamentalist death list, she and her second husband,
Sherif Hetata, fled to the USA, where she taught at Duke University and Washington State
University. She returned to Egypt in 1996.
In 2004 she presented herself as a candidate for the presidential elections in Egypt, with a
platform of human rights, democracy and greater freedom for women. In July 2005, however, she
was forced to withdraw her candidacy in the face of ongoing government persecution.
Nawal El Saadawi has achieved widespread international recognition for her work. She holds
honorary doctorates from the universities of York, Illinois at Chicago, St Andrews and Tromso. Her
many prizes and awards include the Great Minds of the Twentieth Century Prize, awarded by the
American Biographical Institute in 2003, the North-South Prize from the Council of Europe and the
Premi Internacional Catalunya in 2004. Her books have been translated into over 28 languages
worldwide. They are taught in universities across the world.
She now works as a writer, psychiatrist and activist. Her most recent novel, entitled Al Riwaya was
published in Cairo in 2004.

Other Editions:

- Woman at Point Zero (Paperback)

- (Paperback)

- Perempuan di Titik Nol (Paperback)

- Woman at Point Zero (Paperback)

- Sfr Noktasndaki Kadn (Paperback)

Books By Author:

-
 - Memoirs from the Women's Prison

- The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World

Books In The Series:

Related Books On Our Site:

 - Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories

- The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in
Islam

- Chaka

- Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe

 - Epileptic 1 [L'Ascension du Haut Mal, 1-3]

- The Deadbeats

- Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized

Professions of the Ancient World

- Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen

- The Radiance of the King

- God's Bits of Wood

- Women of Sand and Myrrh

- Children of the New World

 - Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale

- American Knees

- Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories

- Petals of Blood
 - Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol

- The Bride Price

Rewiews:

Jan 31, 2016

Rowena
Rated it: it was amazing
Shelves: own, feminism, african-lit, shortlist
A new world was opening up in front of my eyes, a world which for me had not existed
before. Maybe it had always been there, always existed, but I had never seen it, never
realized it had been there all the time. How was it that I had been blind to its existence all
these years?- Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero
I was told by a friend that the German title for this book is translated as I Spit on You, and it
makes a lot of sense after you read the book, because that will probably be y A new world was
opening up in front of my eyes, a world which for me had not existed before. Maybe it had
always been there, always existed, but I had never seen it, never realized it had been there
all the time. How was it that I had been blind to its existence all these years?- Nawal El
Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero
I was told by a friend that the German title for this book is translated as I Spit on You, and it
makes a lot of sense after you read the book, because that will probably be your reaction to most
of the characters. This is my second El Saadawi book and I wish Id written a review for the first
book of hers that I read, The Innocence of the Devil, because I thought both books were excellent,
similar in their approach and very powerful in how they portrayed patriarchy, sexism, hypocrisy,
and misogyny.
I love Firdaus, our protagonist, and I think shes a character wholl stay with me for a very long
time. At the beginning of the novella we find her on death row for killing a man and as she
recounts her story to a female psychiatrist who is sent to visit her. We learn more about her. And
its shocking. It wouldnt surprise me if many women are able to see themselves in Firdaus,
despite the fact that we might not be Egyptian, Muslim etc, like she was. Parts of her story are
surely the stories of many women.
The tone of the book starts off so innocently and simply; the change in describing brutal incidents
caught me by surprise. From every single man Firdaus encounters she experiences abuse or
exploitation of sorts. Firdaus changes because of her experiences and we see how strong she
becomes, despite encountering such awful things.
Despite the tragic story, Firdaus has moments of agency and emancipation. This woman who
nobody wants, whos abused time and again, who isnt helped when she should be, comes up with
her own definition of truth based on what she sees and experiences, not what she has been
indoctrinated with. El Saadawi exposes the hypocrisy in religious and patriarchal societies with
men using tradition for their own purposes:
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.
She compares and contrasts marriage and prostitution, and she is often very blunt about what she
perceives to be the position of women in society:
All women are victims of deception. Men impose deception on women and punish them
for being deceived, force them down to the lowest level and punish them for falling so low,
bind them in marriage and then chastise them with menial service for life, or insults, or
blows.
But there is the hope when women like Firdaus realize the truth but also the power they actually
have:
How many were the years of my life that went by before my body, and my self became
really mine, to do with them as I wished? How many were the years of my life that were lost
before I tore my body and my self away from the people who held me in their grasp since
the very first day?
And ultimately though the telling of Firdaus story, I found myself changed as well, and more
understanding of Firdaus journey and evolution.
A man does not know a womans value, Firdaus. She is the one who determines her
value."
62 likes
6 comments

Mariam
Perfect review for such a wonderful book! I loved the way Firdous connected prostitution to
freedom, whereas many people would find that to be a huge
Perfect review for such a wonderful book! I loved the way Firdous connected prostitution to
freedom, whereas many people would find that to be a huge paradox. Her existentialist attitude
was also extremely appropriate in relation to her increasing awareness of the reality of the
situation. She is definitely a character that will stick with me as well.

Mar 24, 2016 08:26PM

Rowena
Mariam wrote: "Perfect review for such a wonderful book! I loved the way Firdous connected
prostitution to freedom, whereas many people would find tha
Mariam wrote: "Perfect review for such a wonderful book! I loved the way Firdous connected
prostitution to freedom, whereas many people would find that to be a huge paradox. Her
existentialist attitude was also e..."
Thanks, Mariam! I so agree, it was such an interesting way of looking at it. I just love how Firdous
grew and took ownership of her own life, so powerful :)

Mar 26, 2016 07:36AM