M.

PHIL ENGLISH

M.PHIL- S1 /Assignment/2020

ASSIGNMENT
RESPOSE REPORT ON WOMEN AT POINT ZERO

Student Name : Zainab Ihsan

Date of Submission : 26 DECEMBER 2020

Submitted To : Mam. Qamar Khushi

BAHAUDDIN ZAKARIYA UNIVERSITY

A Response Report on Woman at Point Zero
The very first reaction while reading the book was that my heart
ached for the suffering of women as they are born and until they die as the case is with
Firdous. Maybe it is because I myself belong to the same gender but even if that is the case, I
feel the pain because I have been through those issues and suffered those dilemmas too. In
my opinion the same is the question asked by Nawal El Saadawi that why is it only the
female part of the society who is oppressed and looked down upon. From the start of her life
until the very end all she ever got was pain, suffering, humiliation, sexual and physical abuse,
loneliness and emptiness. We cannot say that all women have been going through the same
problems but every one of us have been facing some of them in one way or the other. We can
get a better picture of the idea in Saadawi’s words as she says,

“All women are victims of deception. Men impose deception on women

And punish them for being deceived, force them down to the lowest level

And punish them for falling so low.” (Saadawi,1973, pg.94)

That is how it should be described, the suffering of women; they are living in a world of
illusion where they think that men are there to offer protection, love, comfort and joy but how
mishandled and misled they are, they do not know, they still run after them for love and
comfort but most of the time what they get in return is humiliation and heart breaks.

I was really impressed by Saadawi’s idea of power that is described

aptly in the novel. Usually, the power lies with the men, all sorts of men in our lives are the
ones that exercise power and what leads women to this humiliation, beatings and abuse is the
helplessness and powerlessness that society identifies them with. Not only in the novel but in
our society where we live and the women with whom we interact on daily basis are the
victims of patriarchy. I would share an experience where I was a witness; my own aunt is
being beaten by her husband who is not only a well-educated person but we never thought of
him as such a cruel being who would beat her wife while she was pregnant. This incident
shook me to core and left me numb for days that even in 21 st century we still have this kind of
mindset in our own houses that beating a woman is not considered a big deal. After these
beatings not only the fact that husband feels no remorse but also that woman’s family feels no
shame in sending her back or justifying the husband’s cruelty and barbarianism is the most
upsetting thing as described by Saadawi in an incident when Firdous is beaten by her
husband and comes to her uncle’s house she is met with the justification be her aunt;

“She replied that it was precisely men well versed in religion who

beat their wives. The precepts of religion permitted such punishment.”

(Saadawi, 1973, pg.46)

We have become advanced enough in the education of society and religion that we finally
can justify these false notions but Woman at Point Zero is such a universal and timeless
writing beautifully crafted by the author that it still holds true to each and every idea it
conveys and we cannot deny the facts mentioned in the novel.

In my opinion the idea of love conveyed by the author is true and not goes for one
gender only but it goes both ways. Not only men find a woman who can help them financially
but women also find such men who can provide them with better life conditions and they can
lead a luxurious life with them. I was really moved by the lines written by the writer about
love as she says;

“But in love I gave all: my capabilities, my efforts, my feelings, my deepest

emotions. Like a saint, I gave everything I had without ever counting the

cost. I wanted nothing, nothing at all, except perhaps one thing. To be saved

through love from it all. To find myself again, to recover the self I had lost.”

(pg.93-94)

People are betrayed, destroyed, paining and they even have lost trust in everything but they
still think that they can be saved. They believe that if they find love in any relation of the
world they can be cured. There is such a power in love that cannot be compared with any
other emotion of the world. It can make or break a person entirely but once this love breaks
someone, they lose all the hopes of being rescued and are lost in an endless abyss. Firdous
tries to find love in every relationship she has. She tried all her life to find love and be cured.
Firstly, from her parents then from his uncle then from Miss Iqbal whom she admires the
most. Even she gave Ibrahim a chance and opened up to him about her life and difficulties
she has been through but all she ever got in return was heartbreak and pain. So finally, she
stops believing in love and considers her life her own and she comes to know that the only
person one should care about is one’s own life.

A very important idea that needs a lot more attention is the harassment of
girls who are very young. These girls are not really educated by their mothers about these
sensitive issues and they go through these things about which they do not even know.
Specially the idea portrayed that there are the members of family whom parents trust and
leave their kids with but these young girls end up being physically ill treated and they cannot
let anyone know about it. I myself have been a victim of this brutality and even when my
parents found out no one believed my mother even my parental grandmother blamed me for it
when I was just five years old. How can such a young girl know about such stuff and its
complexity and severity. When even the person who harassed her is a very dear uncle? So, I
can personally feel and even recall my emotions and feelings and can relate with Firdous
even more. She got rid of that uncle but I still live in the same house as we live in a joint
family system. I see that person daily carrying out his life peacefully and leading a very
happy married life and what about the girl who was mentally destroyed after a month of this
brutality? No one feels for us. Even our parents who claim to care about their children more
than anything in the world worry about their family relations and what the society thinks.

“I would glimpse my uncle’s hand moving slowly from behind the book he was reading to
touch my leg. The next moment I could feel it travelling up my thigh ….. every time there was
the sound of a footstep, his hand would withdraw quickly.” (pg.13)

My favorite idea in the book and that left me with a food for thought was
the idea of freedom that is so confidently conveyed by the author that it entirely left me
speechless and in a kind of trauma. As the writer says,

“I have triumphed over both life and death because I no longer desire to live, nor I do any
longer fear to die. I was nothing. I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. Therefore, I am free.”

(pg.110)

According to Firdous, the idea of freedom is to be true and to be realistic. No one can be free
unless someone does not believe in truth or fear anything. With fear people can be enslaved
and can be made to do things only because of that fear but once someone achieves a level
where there is no need to be fearful or lie, they reach a point in life where they are free. That
idea of freedom inspired me the most because slavery is not just physical but we are slaves of
our thoughts, our made up lies, our notions that others tell us and those that we believe in and
slaves of our fears. These lies and fears overcome our personality and we become their
slaves. Overcoming these fears and telling ourselves the truth are the most important acts of
life that need to be done my every human on this earth to be free.

“For the truth is always easy and simple. And in its simplicity lies a savage power…… And
to have arrived at the truth means that no one longer fears death. For death and truth are
similar in that they both they require a great courage if one wishes to face them. And truth is
like death in that it kills” (pg. 112)

If we talk about Firdous in this novel she was such a brave and courageous lady that she
decided to be free after struggling so much in her life. She did not choose to subdue in front
of the societal rules and the norms and regulations that were set for females only. She came to
a conclusion after leading such a dreadful life that saying the truth is very easy and truth is
always simple but it has a great power in it. With this power anyone can overcome their fears
and can be faced with the true nature of things and ideas. Maybe someone would feel that it
was very violent of her to kill that pimp who was harassing her and she was calling it victory
over her fears but if we see it from a less violent point of view, we can use it as an example
only to kill our fears and to be free in life and whatever we are going to face next.

In a nut shell, I would definitely recommend the novel to others specially to females who are
enslaved due to what they believe in. This book changed my entire thought process and
inspired me a lot and I’m really changed and a lot braver and more courageous than I was
ever before.