Woman at Point Zero
Christina Tadros
(FR) Cet article est une analyse du roman féministe « Ferdaous, une voix en enfer » écrit par l’auteure égyptienne Nawal El Saadawi en 1975 et décrivant la vie quotidienne troublée de Ferdaous, une femme égyptienne lors du gouvernement postcolonial de Anwar Sadat. Dans ce récit, il est suggéré que Ferdaous utilise la prostitution comme outil d’émancipation, allant ainsi à l’encontre de l’institution patriarcale du mariage en Égypte de l’époque. Avant de faire ce choix, Ferdaous était déjà une prostituée « légale » : une escale sexuelle légale dans un mariage légal. Cependant, ce qui distingue ces deux situations est le sentiment de contrôle et de liberté que procure cette prise d’indépendance. C’est donc être en contrôle de sa propre prostitution qui est réellement illégale. Ce phénomène sociétal est ce que l’histoire de Ferdaous reflète, à travers une critique du mariage et de la prostitution sous une Égypte patriarcale.
Woman at Point Zero is a feminist novel written by the Egyptian author Nawal El Saadawi published in 1975. The novel is a first-person account of the life of Firdaus, an Egyptian peasant girl, starting from her childhood of neglect and cruelty to her eventual imprisonment and execution. Firdaus lives in an environment where men dominate women within a variety of institutions, including marriage, religion, politics, culture, and economics. She is a victim of the conservative, indigenous traditions of Egyptian society under Anwar Sadat’s post-colonial government. Firdaus adopts prostitution — a form of sex work — as a tool for liberation as it defies the patriarchal institution of marriage in Egypt at that time. Prostitution enables Firdaus to become her own master without being forced into a life of servitude; Firdaus’ sense of empowerment that results from sex work explicitly critiques Egyptian patriarchal society, as sex work was not a respected or recognized form of labour. In her novel, El Saadawi inverts notions of honour, liberation, and respectability through Firdaus’ participation in prostitution and through her critique of the institution of marriage.
Throughout the novel, El Saadawi characterizes many of Firdaus’ relationships within a master-slave complex, illustrating Firdaus’ transfer between masters throughout her life. Her first masters were her abusive parents. In the winter, her “father used to shift [her] straw mat and pillow to the small room facing north,” and then occupy her corner in the oven room.[1] Just as her father prioritized his own wellbeing over Firdaus’, so too did her own mother as she “used to abandon [Firdaus] alone and go to [Firdaus’] father to keep him warm.”[2] After the death of her parents, Firdaus is sent to Cairo to live with her uncle, where she felt she was “being born a second time,”[3] implying that she was entering a phase similar to her childhood under her parents. While living with her uncle, Firdaus is exploited for manual labour within the household as she is required to wash “the floor, the dishes, and the clothes.”[4] Additionally, Firdaus is constantly sexually abused by her uncle while living with him; her role as a niece also entails the function of a sexual slave. She habitually holds her “breath and pretend[s] to be asleep, waiting for his finger to reach out” for her while she [is] asleep.”[5]
Whilst living with her uncle, Firdaus’ aunt suggests that Firdaus marry her aunt’s uncle, Sheikh Mahmoud, a man over the age of sixty, so that “she will have a good life.”[6] According to her aunt, the only good life Firdaus is capable of achieving is being “an obedient wife, who will serve [Mahmoud] and relieve his loneliness.”[7] El Saadawi’s narrative clearly implies that women must be obedient and submissive to men in order to fulfill their role in society, exhibiting the staunch patriarchy in Egypt. Similarly, there is a clear transfer of Firdaus between masters which extends beyond her own control. Her forced marriage to Sheikh Mahmoud is a direct result of her inherent lack of power as “she [...] inherit[s] nothing, and has no income of her own,” and thus needs a husband — a new master — in order to survive in society.[8]
While under Sheikh Mahmoud, Firdaus experiences physical, sexual, and mental abuse; she must cook, clean, and serve him dinner, yet she would still be beaten if she did not finish the food on her own plate. Sheikh Mahmoud “would hit [her] all over with his shoe” until Firdaus’s “face and body became swollen and bruised.” [9] She seeks her uncle for protection, however, her uncle informs her that “all husbands beat their wives,” and that a “virtuous woman was not supposed to complain about her husband. Her duty was perfect obedience.”[10] As Firdaus is forced to return to her husband’s abusive household, she realizes the deeply misogynistic, patriarchal structure of her society.
Upon her return, Firdaus’ husband “leap[s]t on [her] like a mad dog… [she does] not turn [her] face or [her] nose away this time. [She] surrender[s] [her] face to his face and [her] body to his body, passively, without any resistance, without a movement, as though life has been drained out of it, like a piece of deadwood.”[11] He once again beats her with “his heavy stick until the blood [runs] from [her] nose and ears,” resulting in her subsequent escape to the streets.[12] Before she ultimately runs away, Firdaus’ lack of retaliation against her husband’s abuse demonstrates her ultimate powerlessness to her husband and essential master. Within this marriage, she has no authority over her own body and is thus trapped in a master-slave complex, abiding by all his needs, orders, and requests.
Firdaus runs away to practice prostitution in order to earn an independent income. El Saadawi adopts particular stylistic motifs to convey the freedom Firdaus feels once she acquires money from her practice. To Firdaus, the money she receives is “ the first time [her] fingers had even touched a note of that kind.”[13] She uses the money she earns to buy food from a restaurant, and “realize[s] this was the first time in [her] life [she] was eating without being watched by two eyes gazing into [her] plate to see how much food [she] took. Ever since [she] was born two eyes had always been there, wide open, staring, unflinching, following every morsel of food on [her] plate.”[14] There is an obvious shift in the way Firdaus acts: instead of living under the house of her master, being exploited and monitored, she now has the freedom to choose what to eat and how much she wants to eat without considering anyone but herself. Her participation in sex work provides her with a sense of power and liberation as she is now able to live independently. She questions if it is “possible that a mere piece of paper could make such a change,” and asks herself why she had not “realized this before.”[15] She recognizes that the masters throughout her life constantly controlled her through financial means; she was always financially dependent on her abusers and therefore could never be fully in control of herself and her body.
Firdaus notices that through prostitution, she is able to earn her own income, setting her free from her previous masters and allowing her to experience independence. She comprehends that the money she earns is “as illicit and forbidden as the thrill of sacrilegious pleasure.”[16] Henceforth, she refuses to shrink in shame while walking in the street. She walks “through the streets with [her] head held high, and [her] eyes looking straight ahead.”[17] There is a change of dynamics within the gender hierarchy; Firdaus is no longer subordinate to men and those around her. She becomes empowered and independent as she begins to deny men when they approach her to proposition her for sex. She is now somewhat liberated as she is able to “choose with whom” she sleeps with; only through sex work has Firdaus been given control over her own body.[18] One may argue that the objectification of her own body through sex work still makes her subordinate to men. Nevertheless, only through this controversial act is Firdaus able to exert agency in her actions and choices.
Before prostitution, Firdaus used to sleep on floors, on wooden couches, would cook, clean, and was sexually abused by a variety of men. Firdaus’ sex work leads to her liberation and autonomy, as she now owns a “clean apartment of [her] own, [...] engag[es] a cook who prepared the food [she] ordered, and employ[s] someone to arrange for [her] appointments at the hours which suited [her], and in accordance with the terms which [she] considered acceptable.”[19] Only through prostitution is there a sense of agency found outside the confines of what the patriarchal society finds respectful. As she now has the liberty of choice and claims her body as her “property alone,” she turns down important men she does not want to sleep with, which leads to eventual imprisonment. Nevertheless, through her acquired wealth as a sex worker, she is able to hire lawyers who aid in releasing her without charges; the courts now deem her to be an “honorable woman.”[20] She learns that “honour required large sums of money to protect it, but that large sums of money could not be obtained without losing one’s honour.”[21] Prostitution creates a path of honour through the liberty Firdaus finds in her claiming her own body and transferring power over it from her previous masters to herself.
Firdaus’ expression of womanhood under the patriarchy must be analyzed through her various roles as a wife and prostitute. In the deeply misogynistic, patriarchal Egyptian society, Firdaus concludes men in Egypt “force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body is that of a wife.”[22] Firdaus’ self-determination to avoid patterns of abuse through prostitution made her an honorable, respectable woman. This notion is further reinforced when she declares “all women” to be “prostitutes of one kind or another,” yet “she preferred to be a free prostitute, rather than an enslaved wife.”[23] Through prostitution, whenever she “needed a dose of honour or fame, [she] had only to draw some money from the bank.”[24] Firdaus was previously a legal prostitute: a legal sex slave in a legal marriage. Nevertheless, the only difference between her becoming her own master and her being enslaved is the control and liberty she exercises in the act of prostitution. Firdaus asserting control over her own body and sexual activity through sex work is what makes her actions illegal. This is a phenomenon concluded through Firdaus’s experience of both marriage and prostitution under the patriarchal society of Egypt. Thus, there is no difference between her being a legal prostitute under marriage and an illegal prostitute in the streets.
Conclusively, Firdaus’ sex work enables her to become her own master, as opposed to succumbing to the power of men. Prostitution was adopted to highlight her liberation from her marriage and previous masters, and to signal her freedom from a life of servitude. She owns and controls her body, and through that, gains independence and liberty, which culminates into honor and respect. Firdaus’ story highlights the sacrifices women must make under a patriarchal society as Firdaus chooses to have authority over her own body through illegal sex work rather than have someone control it for her, as in her abusive marriage. Counter to the common impulse of shaming the profession of prostitution, sex work merely provides Firdaus with tools to free herself from oppression.