"Firdaus is the story of a woman driven by despair to the darkest of ends. This woman, despite her misery and despair, evoked in all those who, like me, witnessed the final moments of her life, a need to challenge and to overcome those forces that deprive human beings of their right to live, to love and to real freedom."
This quote is a snapshot summary of Woman at Point Zero. It offers a quick glance of what the content of the novel is about, while also mentioning the impact Firdaus and her story has on all those who hear it.
"However, every single man I did get to know filled me with but one desire: to lift my hand and bring it smashing down on his face."
By the end of the novel, Firdaus has undergone a remarkable transformation. Gone is the shy and self-conscious young woman who allows men to dictate the terms of her life. Despite the pressures of her society, she has gained a sense of self-worth and fearlessness even in the face of death. By making the bold statement that she wants to physically hurt every man she’s ever known, Firdaus is demonstrating her hard-won freedom, self-pride, and fearlessness.
“'Any one of them, it doesn’t make any difference. They’re all the same, all sons of dogs, running around under various names. Mahmoud, Hassanein, Fawzy, Sabri, Ibrahim, Awadain, Bayoumi.’
I interrupted her with a gasp. ‘Bayoumi?!’
She laughed out loud. I glimpsed her small, white pointed teeth, with a gold tooth right in the middle.
‘I know them all. Which one of them started it? Your father, your brother… one of your uncles?'”
Although she eventually betrays Firdaus as well, Sharifa does teach Firdaus much about the world. One of those things is that, in their world, no man is to be trusted. Sharifa demonstrates this revolving door of abusive men by listing random male names—and, ironically, most of those names happen to be the names of men who have either wronged Firdaus or will wrong her in the future. Sharifa also shows how universal Firdaus’s history of abuse is by correctly guessing that the abuse cycle started with Firdaus’s uncle.
“I abandoned myself to her eyes, and put my arms around her, whispering: ‘Who are you?’
And she replied, ‘Your mother.'
‘My mother died many years ago.'
‘Then your sister.'”
After telling Firdaus that all men are sons of dogs that cannot be trusted, Sharifa tries to instill in Firdaus a sense of female unity. By claiming Firdaus as first her daughter and then her sister, Sharifa is implying that Firdaus isn’t alone: as women, they need to stand together in the face of male aggression and abuse. Sadly, this proves to be a noble ideal and not reality, because Sharifa proves she’s not much better than the men in Firdaus’s life.
“You must be harder than life, Firdaus. Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those who are harder than life itself.”
Again, Sharifa is giving Firdaus advice, which Firdaus takes to heart. Firdaus draws upon this hardness and resiliency when she finally confronts Marzouk and stops him from ruling her life.
“No… I have no trust in men any more.”
This line comes just after Firdaus finds out Sharifa has been betraying her. She flees Sharifa’s beautiful apartment and is wandering the streets of Cairo when a policeman comes up and attempts to solicit her for sex. In response to the officer asking her to come to his house, Firdaus says no because she has no trust in men anymore. This quote explicitly marks the moment when Firdaus’s stance towards men and people begins to shift.
“It was as though money was a shameful thing, made to be hidden, an object of sin which was forbidden to me and yet permissible for others, as though it had been made legitimate only for them.”
When Firdaus gets her first payment from a client, it sets off a "eureka moment" in her mind. She realizes that this money will allow her to live independently. She also realizes that the men in her life made concentrated efforts to prevent her from accessing money. One of the ways the men in Firdaus’s life controlled her was by making her financially dependent on them. Once this means of control is gone, Firdaus finds that she is free and independent for a time.
“'You poor, deluded woman,’ said she, ‘do you believe there is any such thing as love?'”
During her time working at the industrial company, Firdaus meets a woman even more jaded and disillusioned than she is. When this woman hears of Firdaus’s romance with Ibrahim, she scoffs and calls Firdaus foolish for believing in love. Although this is a pessimistic outlook, the woman turns out to be correct because Ibrahim joins the list of people who betray Firdaus. This quote also articulates one of the core questions that Woman at Point Zero asks: Does love free of betrayal exist?
“Yet not for a single moment did I have any doubts about my own integrity and honour as a woman. I knew that my profession had been invented by men, and that men were in control of both our worlds, the one on earth, and the one in heaven. That men force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body is that of a wife. All women are prostitutes of one kind or another.”
Throughout Woman at Point Zero, Firdaus struggles to make sense of her place in the world. After graduating from secondary school, she searches for purpose. When she gets married to Sheikh Mahmoud, she tries to be the perfect housewife, but eventually she rebels and leaves him. She is then unwittingly led into a life of prostitution. Because of her varied life experiences, Firdaus comes to the conclusions she articulates in this quote. Some women might look down upon prostitutes, but according to Firdaus, all women are prostitutes to the men in their lives. Some just get paid. This speaks volumes about the state of women’s rights, sexual autonomy, and a woman’s right to choose in Egypt during this time.
“I am a killer, but I’ve committed no crime. Like you, I kill only criminals.”
When the police apprehend her for killing Marzouk, Firdaus is unapologetic. In this quote, she asserts that Marzouk was a criminal, and thus she was justified in her actions. This is a revolutionary idea in Firdaus’s society, that a man should be punished for his abuses towards a woman. This is yet another example of how Firdaus is a person before her time.
