Nawal El Saadawi. Woman at Point Zero. -

I read this text in one evening. It was not artistically constructed; there were stylistic holes everywhere. The text almost seems to suggest an element of magical realism, if not complete romanticism. The author introduces herself in the text and then quickly vacates, preparing the stage for an imprisoned woman with whom she has become obsessed. The story is told in a first person narrative (for both women), and traces the life of a young Egyptian girl sexually abused from a young age, who eventually finds her most satisfying and powerful work in prostitution before her resistance is recognized and quelled. She martyrs herself, something the first narrator cannot do. One of the critical snippets on the back of the text from the New York Times calls the novel “allegory.” What struck me first, of course, was the language. The first narrator’s language is of one desiring education, one lost and in search of guidance. Guidance comes from Firdaus, who testifies before the psychiatrist, the “woman of science”; however, this “testimony” has been manipulated by the narrator, and the narrator’s romanticizing of Firdaus echoes in the lyrical and incantatory language.

Firdaus tells the story of her childhood, during which she is repulsed by her parents—by her father for being a subservient female and by her mother for her burgeoning womanhood. It is fairly clear that the daughter receives a clitorectomy from the mother and the mother’s friend, and the scant moments of stimulation Firdaus experiences later in life appear to be more so emotional than sexual. The text reminds me of the retelling of Aileen Wuornos’ life and death in Monster. How does a woman react after a lifetime of sexual abuse? Both women survive by prostituting themselves. In this position they are in power over the men; but it is the rape of Wuornos with something resembling a steel pipe that finally drives her to become a vigilante. Firdaus only kills one man, and threatens to kill a second, but the jagged paths of rejection leading to the murders of men, men representative of those who have tortured and debased them, are shared by both women. Where Wuornos had the privilege of “whiteness”, Firdaus does not; she is affected by race, gender, and class. She documents her rise from a low class childhood, to a middle class adolescence, during which she earns her beloved “secondary certificate”, to taking payment from “princes” for her services.

Her transgression from childhood to adulthood is marked by sexual abuse by her uncle—which she doesn’t recognize is sexual abuse until she sees her own reflection in the mirror as well as a film to which the uncle takes her. The uncle quickly abandons her to marry a woman from a higher class (a woman who fills the typical fairy tale wicked stepmother role of elevating her own children before the father’s child so that they might claim inheritance). She experiences bisexual feelings, for both Miss Iqbal and Ibrahim, and is rejected both times (as the narrator recalls being rejected by one she loved unrequitedly—but it is Firdaus who discovers that love does not exist, that marriage creates the most servile state for women). She then endures abuse by Mahmoud, her 60-year-old pennypinching, lip-rotting husband. She flees into the arms of Bayoumi, who whores her out to his friends. She then runs to Sharifa, who has internalized the oppression of the male populace and perpetuates Firdaus’s subjugation while fulfilling the male role impressed upon her. It is her recognition of the power of capital that propels her forward—those trapped in a capitalist government with no capital are helpless. Those with capital have power. Once she finds a sense of power, Di’aa, another john, forces her to question her “respectability”. Her exploration of respectability amounts to a low-paying position that offers less respectability than prostitution; thus, she returns, and breaks down the barriers to male access by realizing how “easy” it is to actually fell a man. It is here that I see she achieves her sense of equality, not through death, as the back of the book suggests. The death sentence is a patriarchal reaction, meant to silence. There is no freedom in silence. “Fortunately”, she admits the narrator immediately before her death and creates a testimony that will presumably “break” the silence despite the narrator’s manipulation of the text.

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First of all, I chose Nawal El Saadawi without question. My primary concentration in the English department is Postcolonial literatures and theories as well as trauma studies. I will read Woman at Point Zero and purchase The Nawal El Saadawi Reader, as well. I'm unsure yet that she will be the focus of my class presentation. The first site I visit, of course, is her own, a site that has been up and running since 2001. I find that she is Egyptian. Like Said. And like Akhmatova, she endured political threats and imprisonment (herself, as opposed to Akhmatova's son) for her activisim and writing. Her website indicates that recently (in 2003), she claims the war on Iraq is a direct violation of:

United Nations Charter item 3 which states that "all members shall settle international disputes by peaceful means, in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice are not endangered." Item 4 of the same article states that "all members shall refrain in their international relations from
threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."

Her website also offers articles on current papers presented in 2004. It is refreshing to find direct articles to peruse and study rather than purchase. Of particular interest to me is her paper presented at the World Social Forum 2004 in Mumbai, India: "War Against Women and Women Against War: Waging War on the Mind." In the article, she criticizes Egypt's acceptance of American neo-imperlialism and foreign-supported Islamic fundamentalism (and Sadat for his materialistic support of the country's globalization for his own personal rise to power):

He needed an internal ally, the support of a political, economic, and cultural Islamicmovement to fight against the democratic
and more socially oriented parties and movements which opposed his policies.  It was in this way that during his regime
international capital, spearheaded by the United States in alliance with the ruling class reimposed its domination on women, men
and children and paved its way under the guise of restoring the values and practices of Islam, of Islamic traditions and of the
family unit as basic to the health and prosperity of society. 

The "war on the mind" of which she speaks, she compares to "religious brainwashing," a domestication of the spirit, mainly of women. She applies this thought as a continuing reaction, then, and now to the rise in Islamic fundamentalism and its negative impact on women. She cites many negative consequences of this manipulation, including technology, self-enslavement, and poverty; she claims a 40% poverty rate (mainly in women and children) due to governmental financial blunders in WTO and World Bank, and discusses the resulting feminization of that poverty. (Her current work is going to be an important focus of my study.)

The UK National Grid for Learning has also posted an encyclopedia entry on Saadawi that lists her complete works and a biography, which will prove useful as an initial research tool.  Worldtrek The Odyssey: Africa Stage has also made available a video interview with Saadawi, which was conducted recently for the educational website.

Vital, too, will be the (conveniently!!) online text of Men, Women and God(s): Nawal El Saadawi and Arab Feminist Poetics.

Aside from the plethora of online materials, Purdue's library houses a decent collection of biography, autobiography, and criticism translated from the Egyptian, including those penned by Jurj Tarabishi (dated, but useful for historical purposes) and Saadawi herself and translated by her husband. I was also able to download several full-text critical articles from Purdue's online databases. I think this will be a good start to my research.

Sources

Amireh, Amal. "Framing Nawal el Saadawi: Arab Feminism in a Transnational World." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society 26:1 (Autumn 2000): 215-49. EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. Accessed January 16, 2005. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&an=4027933

Belton, Brian and Clare Dowding. "nawal el saadawi: a creative and dissodent life." infed. 2000. Updated February 14, 2004. Accessed January 16, 2005. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-saadawi.htm.

Cooke, Miriam. Women Claim Islam: Creating Islamic Feminism Through Literature. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Darraj, Susan Muaddi. " 'We All Want the Same Things Basically': Feminism in Arab Women's Literature." Women and Language 26:1 (Spring 2003):79-82. EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. Accessed January 16, 2005.  http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&an=10530187. 

El Saadawi, Nawal. A Daughter of Isis: The Autobiography of Nawal el Saadawi. London: Zed Books, 2001.

---."Dr. Nawal El Saadawi." Webcast interview conducted by The Odyssey: Africa Stage. Worldtrek for Service and Education. Accessed January 16, 2005. http://www.worldtrek.org/odyssey/africa/nawal/index.html.

---. Memoirs from the Women's Prison. Trans. Marilyn Booth. Berkeley: California UP, 1994.

---. "War Against Women and Women Against War: Waging War on the Mind." A paper presented at The World Social Forum, Mumbai, India. January 16-21, 2004. Accessed January 16, 2005. http://www.nawalsaadawi.net/articlesnawal/MumbaiNawalPaper.DOC.

---. The Nawal El Saadawi Reader. London: Zed Books, 1997.

---. Walking Through Fire: A Life of Nawal El Saadawi. Trans. Sherif Hetata. London: Zed Books, 2002.

---. Woman at Point Zero. London: Zed Books, 1983.

Malti-Douglas, Fedwa. Men, Women and God(s): Nawal El Saadawi and Arab Feminist Poetics. Berkeley: California UP, 1995. Accessed January 16, 2005. http://texts.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft8c6009n4&brand=.

Saliba, Therese. "On the Bodies of Third World Women: Cultural Impurity, Prostitution, and Other Nervous Conditions." College Literature 22:1 (February 1995): 147-60. Accessed January 16, 2005.

Suhair Majaj, Lisa, Paula W. Sunderman, and Therese Saliba, eds. Intersections: Gender, Nation, and Community in Arab Women's Novels. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2002.

Tarabishi, Jurj. Woman Against Her Sex: A Critique of Nawal el-Saadawi with a reply by Nawal el-Saadawi. Trans. Basil Hatim and Elisabeth Orsini. London: Saqi Books, 1988.

Virtual Activism. "Nawal El Saadawi and Sherif Hetata." 2001. Accessed January 16, 2005. http://www.nawalsaadawi.net/.