I absolutely loved it. It's about Firdaus, a woman who is one death-row in Egypt and is going to die in a week for killing a pimp. She was born to parents who didn't love her and given to her uncle who sexually abused her. Then married off to an old widow who abused her more. Each relationship started out with her trusting them and in the end they treated her awfully. After her husband rapes her she decides to own her body and decide who she's going to give it to. So, she becomes a prostitute. She denies men she wants to deny and gets great satisfaction from it, as no woman is ever supposed to tell a man "no." She becomes very sucessful, owns her own apartment and nice things. After a few years, she decides to work at a factory and she hated the job, thought it incredibly oppressive and went back to being a prostitute. She said, "these women are more afraid of losing their job than a prostitute is of losing her life." How can someone be free with that kind of fear.

and I came to the conclusion that all the women in the book are prostitutes in some way. They all belonged to a man; their father, their husband, their boss, etc. Except Firdaus, the real prostitute, who is incredibly liberated and owns herself and demands a high price for her body. Other women are doing what she does for free and getting beaten for it, can't ever say no, can't own anything for themselves, can't own their own bodies.

And I don't know how I feel about it. Obviously it's a militant feminist message, obviously man-hating, but I thought the idea was interesting. The book was incredibly cynical and felt like shit after I read it, there was no hope about it, but it was a great book and I will be reading more from her. ( )

I thought that I would love this book. I didn't hate it but I didn't find as compelling as others have described. I suppose my own immigrant background might be to blame. The horrible things that occur in this book aren't unique to Egypt or Islamic countries, these are things that happen to women all over in the world in developing countries.

The writing is very simple, some things may have been lost in translation. The themes are cyclical, often the narrator will speak or experience events in patterns. I felt that style took away from the impact of the story. It's a short book - which presents an interesting question for me, would I have liked this book more if it had been longer? The book is so short that most of the pivotal character shaping events are only a sentence or so long. But at the same time, this is a book that can be read in an afternoon, so I didn't feel like it was a waste of time even though I didn't love it.

As an aside, while I was reading this, I kept remembering The Misfortunes of Virtue by Marquis de Sade because the main characters in both stories keep getting stuck in some horrible situation, running away, trusting someone new, and getting duped again, over and over and over. For that reason, I wonder how much artistic license the author took with the true story. ( )

Based upon the files of women Dr. el-Sa'dawi interviewed while researching her book "Women and Neurosis," this novel's main character is Firdaus, a woman on Egypt's death row for killing a would be pimp. The story is set up as an interview/biography of Firdaus, and her tale provides the reader new insight to the life that many women lead, even in "progressive" Islamic states such as Egypt. A very brief novel and a quick read, it is a must for those wishing to better understand the emerging third world and Islam. ( )

Based upon the author’s encounter with a woman imprisoned in Qanatir prison in Cairo, Egypt this novel was written by Dr Nawan El Saadawi, a psychiatrist who came upon a woman in solitary confinement, awaiting her execution. She is an Egyptian feminist novelist born in 1931. A challenging read in terms of content yet written in a sparse and apparently simple style. This is a powerful and uncomfortable story with a depth of meaning far beneath the surface of the words.

Following the first 1978 Arabic publication in Beirut it was banned across several middle east countries, including Egypt. The French edition of the novel was awarded the 1982 Literary Prize for Franco-Arab Friendship.

I found this work inspiring, deeply thought provoking and at many points it drove me to reflect on 'my' life choices. Thoughts of freedom, dignity, respect for others and for oneself ... all of which I have a choice to accept - or not. Doris Lessing wrote of this book as one in which we are reminded not to take our good fortune for granted. That certainly rang true for me and compelled me to ask how am I using the freedom that I have?

At one point I recalled A Women of One’s Own as the twenty five year old Firdaus speaks of a room in her apartment. This part of her story finds her saying … ‘Now I could decide on the food I wanted to eat, the house I preferred to live in, refuse the man for whom I felt an aversion no matter what the reason, and choose the man I wished to have ….’ She then talks of her liking of culture. ... ‘ever since I had started to go to school and had learned to read, but especially during this last period, since I could buy books. I had a large library in my apartment, and it was here that I spent most of my free time. On the walls I had hung …. And right in the middle was my secondary school certificate surrounded by an expensive frame. I never received anyone in the library. It was a very special room reserved for me alone’ … (page 69)

I highly recommend this book for all to ponder upon the value and meaning of life. ( )

[Woman at Point Zero] by [[Nawal El Saadawi]] tells the story of Firdaus, a woman who is imprisoned and awaiting her execution for killing her pimp. Without giving the details of the story away, Firdaus's story is a 'bildungsroman', a novel of self-discovery and her search for a meaningful existence in the society she has been born into; however, in Firdaus's case, she ultimately rejects the accommodation her society has made for her. Based on a true story and written in the 1970's, Woman at Point Zero is an indictment against the oppression of women in the Arab world, a compelling read (all 100 or so pages), and a strangely uplifting story. ( )