Another short yet powerful read for Women in Translation Month! I'm sensing a bit of a theme here, as my concentration span these days definitely prefers books within the lower page range. But also, most of the short books I've been reading have had more of an impact on me than books in the 300-500 page range. Woman at Point Zero is no exception! This one has been translated from the Arabic by El Saadawi’s husband Sherif Hetata!

.

The woman in this book, Firdaus, is based on a real woman El Saadawi met while researching her paper Women and Neurosis in Egypt (she's a psychiatrist among many other things). El Saadawi gained entry into Qanatir's Women's Prison and there she met Firdaus, imprisoned for killing a man. She was executed. Later, when El Saadawi herself was imprisoned for her feminist views under Sadat's regime, she kept imagining she could see Firdaus among the other inmates. Firdaus and her story stuck with her.

.

So I guess the book is sort of biographical fiction. It's split into three sections, with section two, narrated by Firdaus, dominating the rest of the text. She narrates her own life story. As she grows up, Firdaus quickly becomes disillusioned with men. In every aspect of her life, as a daughter, niece, employee, wife, she experiences abuse. When she becomes a prostitute, she realises for the first time that she has agency over her own body and she can make her own money.

.

But one day a man tells her her job is not 'respectable’. She decides to seek out more 'respectable' employment, only to have her eyes opened to the denigration suffered by the women in her workplace at the hands of their male colleagues and bosses - for a much lower price, or for no price at all, just in an attempt to keep their jobs.

.

I liked the cyclical nature of the book, although the cycles of abuse themselves were heartbreaking. But stylistically, I liked the way El Saadawi presented recurring episodes and motifs throughout. It makes for an even more memorable read, although like the author herself, I can't see myself forgetting about Firdaus any time soon.