The novel by Nawal El Saadawi will serve as a symbol of feminist revolt against patriarchy, by showcasing a genuine account of the miserable life of an Egyptian woman
By Maryam Nassif
There's something terribly enrapturing in reading about someone's unfortunate events. Not that it brings you joy, or anything cynical like that; but because you develop an unknown sense of understanding for intangible things, for tales of people you'll never know, for the story of the Woman at Point Zero.
Her name is Firdaus. She's in jail in Cairo for murder, awaiting her death penalty. In all her time being incarcerated, she had never agreed to see anyone, until psychiatrist and writer Nawal El Saadawi went out of her way to get a few words from her, the day before her death. Firdaus is strong and fearless, almost as though she welcomed death with open arms. She was given a request of pardon to sign, which she ignored, even though it would've kept her alive. Ironically, it only seems like a few years ago when Firdaus was a young girl, full of hope, she was even considered a dreamer. But Firdaus is a woman now; a woman who grew from abuse, learned from betrayal and lived from survival.
Woman at Point Zero was first published in Arabic in 1975 Egypt, a time where conservatism came in the way of truth. Nawal El Saadawi always strived to shatter the patriarchy, by speaking savagely, thus honestly. She suffered from being too ahead of her time, which cost her a job at a magazine (she was fired for writing an article about women and sex). This closure was the beginning of her long affinity with research on neurosis in Egyptian women. She eventually focused her study on women in prison, which led her to meet Firdaus. After the prisoner's execution in 1974, Saadawi decided to honour her life by transcribing Firdaus's story into a book, into an immortal, semi-fictional narrative, until it became engraved in history.
In celebration of International Women's day, I decided to present to you an alternative take on feminism, where men are core components and women are more united. Nawal predicted the sort of division we suffer from in the 21st century: feminism tends to be categorised into subgroups depending on ethnicities, nationalities and identities. This only means that instead of uniting women over the concept of feminism, it divides them. The author, through the character of Firdaus, tries to break this divide.
The book counts a total of three chapters. The first one is narrated by El Saadawi herself, as she describes her efforts of meeting Firdaus, and sets the scene in Qanatir prison in Cairo. The second chapter, which naturally fills up most the book, is narrated by Firdaus, where she recounts her entire life story chronologically, from her dark childhood, to the present time where she's taken away to be hung. The final chapter are Nawal's last thoughts, as she watches the guards take the prisoner away, feeling metamorphosed after a life-changing encounter.
The life of Firdaus is so overwhelmingly atrocious, it's hard to translate into words. In fact, many elements of her life were written by obliteration; descriptions of rape and abuse are numbingly abstract, depicted only through emotions rather than physical details. This however, does not affect your ability to visualise the scene mentally and feel a feverish discomfort. Firdaus, in a literal frame, is somewhere between a heroine and the exact opposite: she's courageous, honest and has strong conviction; yet she's constantly battling the opposite sex, doesn't know pleasure (any kind, as matter of fact), and ends up committing a felony. However, Nawal doesn't really give you space to either love or hate her character, she gives you the rare gift of relating to it. Firdaus knows pleasure from a mere childhood moment before she underwent clitoridectomy. She knows choice from deciding to prostitute herself. She knows freedom by killing a man. The controversies arousing from this book are raw and can even lead to sleepless nights: Firdaus's pain suddenly becomes yours. This isn't an easy read, or dedicated to the faint-hearted, but as Nawal El Saadawi says it so fiercely, "nothing is more perilous than truth in a world of lies".
Indeed, there's nothing we truly need more than truth in an era of fake news, oppressive governments, and media bias. Firdaus was always an outsider, no one dealt with her appropriately and no one treated her right. Although her anger tends to shift towards men, the women in her life are significantly unempowering. They made her feel less than, imposed their beliefs that getting beat up by your husband is an honour and convinced her that love was an illusion. This isn't the story of just Firdaus, it's the story of many; she represents the frenzied identities of minorities as they go through the torments of other men and women and the judicial system.
Nawal always valued freedom of choice and the assertion of power by women. She challenges mainstream culture and powerful bodies in accepting the truth, even though she long suffered from expressing it so fearlessly.
This book isn't just for your mothers, sisters and wives. It's also for your fathers, brothers and husbands. After meeting Firdaus, Nawal ceased to see the world in black and white, and saw it for its abominable rawness, where lies spread better than truth ever will. This realistic realisation will hit you too and will linger for a long time after your path meets Firdaus's.
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