Memorable Quotes from Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero

1. “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.”  (Page 19)
2. “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.” (Page 35)
3. “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?’” (Page 111)
4. “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” (Page 113)
5. “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.” (Page 114)
6. “No… I have no trust in men anymore.” (Page 128)
7. “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.” (Page 139)
8. “’You poor, deluded woman,’ said she, ‘do you believe there is any such thing as love?” (Page 167)
9. “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.” (Page 183)
10. “I am a killer, but I’ve committed no crime. Like you, I kill only criminals.” (Page 199)

Further Reading:

• Analysis of Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero
• Characters in Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero
• Themes in Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero

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