Woman at Point Zero

Content Warning: This section includes descriptions of child sexual abuse, sexual assault and rape, physical violence, and domestic abuse.



The protagonist of Woman at Point Zero, Firdaus’s story is based on the real-life account of a woman of the same name. Nawal El Saadawi met Firdaus during her final day before her execution and was given the privilege of hearing Firdaus’s story firsthand. Firdaus was convicted of murder and sentenced to death but maintained the belief that women can’t be criminals and that she herself was innocent. She viewed her reaction of murdering her pimp as a symbol of what happens when women are pushed to the brink or reach their “point zero.” Firdaus remains a symbol of resilience and agency in a world that constantly tries to rob women of it. She also symbolizes the effects of patriarchal domination of women and what it means to be free from desire and hypocrisy.

Firdaus’s resilience is evident in her story from the time she’s very young, but she doesn’t develop a sense of agency until she’s much older and discovers what agency truly means. As a child, she was sexually, physically, and emotionally abused, as well as severely neglected, often going hungry and receiving little attention from her parents.