Woman at Point Zero

The Subjectiveness of Guilt and Innocence emerges as a major theme in the brief final chapter of Woman at Point Zero as Firdaus asserts her innocence and notes that men are the guilty ones, continually committing crimes against women, so women can’t possibly be criminals for fighting back. In addition, this chapter illustrates the aftereffects for Saadawi of meeting Firdaus and hearing her story of enslavement and resilience. Saadawi chose to write Firdaus’s story as a novella, avoiding the common drawing-out of facts and stories and including only as much as she was given. The author felt as if she was in a dream while listening to Firdaus, as if she had been transported elsewhere, because Firdaus showed courage unlike anyone else. Saadawi believes that Firdaus was wise to a dark but important truth about humanity and the state of women’s lives and dignity amid a patriarchal society. She spoke of “the fear of the truth which kills, the power of truth, as savage, and as simple, and as awesome as death, yet as simple and as gentle as the child that has not yet learnt to lie” (108). Firdaus stated that she didn’t kill with a blade but with the truth; she wasn’t killing a person but a lie. She was attacking an idea, a system, and an experience of domination and abuse that was and continues to be all too common. Saadawi considers Firdaus the bravest woman she has ever known, far braver than herself. She laments that the hypocritical illusions of the world cost Firdaus her life, noting that to many who knew Firdaus, she was totally innocent.