Woman at Point Zero Paperback – 15 November 2015

"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'm free. For during life it is our wants, our fears, our hopes that enslave us."Its been a long time since a book has compelled me to pause between the pages, sink in whatever is happening.Author, psychiatrist, activist Nawal El Sadaawi attempted to interview a prostitute, Firdaus, who was awaiting execution for murdering a pimp, and refusing to file for a mercy petition. After some resistance Firdaus finally agreed to tell her story few hours before she was hanged.Sexually abused and raped at a tender age, mistreatment and abuse followed Firdaus wherever life took her. Robbed of basic rights she always ended up in hands of menwho wronged her, who entrap her, exploit her, sexually abuse their 'power' over her, masquerading as a relative, husband, lover or helping hand.Firdaus thought she got a hold of her life when she learnt the power of having agency over her body, but it took some more time and pain to realise that there is no end to female oppression in this patriarchal society. She embraced death sentence as a relief from her excruciating pain.Reading this book you kind of expect the cycles of abuse might be finally ending, but they don't. They just keep getting more heartbreaking. The intensely hard hitting language feels like diving deep into Firdaus's mind and drowning in her emotions. Its raw, it's dark, it's haunting, and unsettling. I couldn't belive all this was happening to a single woman, and god knows how, how many of such stories are unheard.One of the most incredibly powerful piece of literature I've ever read.

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"Everybody has to die. I will die, and you will die.The important thing is how to live until you die. Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those who are harder than life itself. Life is a snake. If the snake realizes you are not a snake, it will bite you. And if life knows you have no sting, it will devour you."Woman at point zero was written by Nawal El Saadawi and was translated to English by Sherif Hetata. This novel, or rather creative non-fiction, takes the reader into the cell of a woman, called Firdaus, the night before her execution. Firdaus was a prostitute. I've already told this before and I'm telling this again, no woman will never ever wish to become a prostitute. Circumstances forced her to become one.Firdaus had so many horrors, maybe only horrors in her life. She had a bitter childhood, her father always rude, poverty, no education. After her parents and siblings death her uncle took her to his home. She got primary and secondary education, then she was married to a rich man, Sheikh Mahmoud’s. He was already over sixty and she was ninteen! She couldn't tolerate the torture from her husband so she left. She met men who wanted her body! Eventually she became a prostitute! Right from her early days her father, uncle, husband, all of them, taught her to grow up as a prostitute.This book is all about Firdaus life journey. And because the world was full of lies, she had to pay the price. But what I couldn't accept about this book was all the men she met in her life was behind her body. Is that what all men want from a woman?!