Woman At Point Zero Book Review

Nawal El Saadawi is a feminist in a part of the world that some might argue truly needs feminism to achieve equality: the middle east. One of her main focuses is on prostitution in the region, and how it affects women who are abused in that line of work. This focus led to her writing the book Woman at Point Zero, which follows the life of a woman named Firdaus who was raised in 1970s Egypt. Firdaus does not lead a charmed life. From a very young age, she is neglected by her parents and sexually abused by her uncle, who takes her in after her parents’ deaths. As the book goes on, Firdaus eventually is trained as a high-end prostitute, under a woman named Sharifa. She then strikes off on her own, as a freelance prostitute. Later on, she ends this life to become an office worker, and then, after a few years, a prostitute again. At the end of the book, she murders one of her clients, and is arrested and executed for murder.

With the book summarized, it’s on to the meat of this essay. It will discuss, hypothetically, how two different readers may interpret this text. The first of these readers is an American man, a firm Christian and a hard-right Conservative. This man believes prostitution is wrong on moral grounds, and has a bias …show more content…
The first section of the page is a conversation between Firdaus’s uncle and his wife, about marrying Firdaus off to a man named Sheikh Mahmoud in exchange for a dowry. The Christian would probably take offense to this concept, as he may see it as primitive or disrespectful towards women, since he does not see them as something to be sold or bought. The Muslim, on the other hand, may have a more mixed reaction to this section. He may see this as another normal aspect of the culture, to be expected of a girl. Alternatively, he may also see it as an antiquated practice, and something that does not have a place in contemporary Muslim