Woman at Point Zero by Nawal el Saadawi
In the Woman At Point Zero, the Egyptian author Nawal El Sadaawi describes her meeting with Firdaus, a woman on death row in a Cairo prison, who shares her life story with her the night before her execution.
It is an intense and interesting look at the lives of women in Egypt during a certain period in time. From a feminist point of view, it's certainly an intriguing text, a powerful portrayal of how the reinforcement of gender roles and inequalities, maintain the role of patriarchy and therefore the oppression of women.
There were many things that El Sadaawi said in Woman At Point Zero that caught my attention. Let's start with a quote from the main character’s thoughts when she decided to become a prostitute.
The time had come for me to shed the last grain of virtue, the last drop of sanctity in my blood. Now I was aware of the reality, of the truth. Now I knew what I wanted. Now there was no room for illusions. A successful prostitute was better than a misled saint. 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.
Now I realized that the least deluded of all women was the prostitute. That marriage was the system built on the most cruel suffering for women.
In just two lines Nawal El Sadaawi makes a prostitute a symbol of the any Woman. Not only she highlights the things that were (are? ) wrong in Egyptian society, but she also makes us all think about marriage (a sexist ceremony by itself) and what really constitutes prostitution.
Near the end of the book, there is a powerful passage where Firdaus explains why she is no longer afraid of death. She says:
They condemned me to death not because I had killed a man - there are thousands of people being killed everyday - but because they are afraid to let me live. They know that as long as I am alive they will not be safe, that I shall kill them. My life means their death. My death means their life. They want to live. And life for them means more crime, more plunder, unlimited booty. I have triumphed over both life and death because I no longer desire to live, nor do I any longer fear to die. I want nothing. I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. Therefore I am free. For during life it is our wants, our hopes, our fears that enslave us. The freedom I enjoy fills them with anger. They would like to discover that there is after all something which I desire, or fear, or hope for. Then they know they can enslave me once more.
A lot to think about here.