Saya tidak melihat Firdaus dari sudut pandang bahwa dia seorang pelacur sekaligus wakil dari kaum yang ( kadang masih )terzalimi di dunia ini.

Saya melihatnya sebagai jiwa manusia di dalam tubuh fana.

Ironis. Sungguh. Bahwa gemerlap sebuah kehidupan selalu terbangun dari awal, tentu saja bermuara dari penderitaan. Dan gemerlap kehidupan itu ditebus oleh penderitaan. Dan ketika dia seharusnya menderita, Firdaus seolah berkata tenang, " Sayalah yang menang..."

Bahwa kematian seorang lelaki yang dit More...

This book deserves a solid five stars, I thought it was wonderful! Basically, the story is said by the main character, Firdaus, which takes place in the second chapter, but it's her speaking to a doctor that wants to learn about her life. In this book, you learn about a girl that gets abused by men, at a young age, she was taken advantage of by a boy and his uncle because she was still too young to understand the private parts that she should be aware of. Hey uncle would secretly touch her above More...

Arabic & English :

احترت في تقييم الرواية ما بين نجمتين و ثلاث !
أسلوب الكاتبة بوجه عام ممل و به كثير من التكرار مما جعل قراءة الرواية في جلسة واحد عسيراً بالرغم من صغر حجمها!
تناقش الرواية أشكال قهرالرجل للمرأة جسدياً و نفسياً ، و ذلك من خلال شخصية واحدة محورية (فردوس) ،التي نشأت و مضت حياتها متخبطة بين شخصيات مشوهة .. مريضة ومزدوجة المعايير في كل ما يخص العلاقات الانسانية على كل مستواياتها ، لتكون فردوس في النهاية شخصية مريضة مثيرة للشفقة ، يتعاطف معها القارئ ،مع وحدتها و قهرها ،آلامها و انصا More...

“I would close my eyes, and try to bring back the scene. The two circles of deep black surrounded by two rings of intense white would gradually appear before my eyes. When I stared into them for some time, they would start to expand, rapidly becoming bigger and bigger, so that at a certain moment the black reached the size of the earth, and the white grew into a piercingly white mass, as big as the disc of the sun. My eyes would lose themselves in the black and the white until they could no long More...

Alasan utama mengapa saya memberi lima bintang pada buku ini adalah bahwa Nawal menggarap kisah ini berdasarkan kisah nyata milik seorang pelacur bernama Firdaus. Pada kepercayaan umat Muslim, Firdaus adalah sesuatu yang didambakan, sebuah nama untuk surga bagi orang-orang yang gemar berpuasa (menahan nafsu dan dahaga). Tapi Firdaus di dunia yang ia tinggali tidak demikian; dari kecil kulitnya sering kali dijadikan pelampiasan laki-laki hidung belang terdekat. Dengan latar belakang seorang dokte More...

108 pages of compact power. And, written in 1975 - it's timeless. In 1975 in the U.S., laws were evolving that allowed high school girls to have their own sports teams. I wonder how women's rights have evolved in Egypt since 1975? Certainly the recent political revolution and its demise of Mubarak's reign should have some effect. But, author Nawal El Saadawi tells a straightforward tale of humiliating oppression focused around Firdaus's noble soul. Her virtuous murder brought me to the edge of a More...

In Nawal el Saawawi's fictional memoir, Women at point zero, there is an external conflict of how can someone's future be determined by their fate. since she was born as a women, it emphasize the role she would have in the society and the path she would be going on as she grew up. the protagonist is socially oppressed by the gender. the protagonist, Firadaus lives in a male dominant community and she want to find way to shape the values of a women. she encounter many flaws through out her lifet More...

This book was very empowering! Firdaus, the protagonist, has a story that completely shows how an individual does have a role in society, but can at time control what that role is. Society cannot not always choose your life for you, and Firdaus' life shows this perfectly. Firdaus was sold into prostitution at a very young age. She was oppressed by her society in Egypt because many factors including her sex and social class. She was constantly moving from one place to the next, trying to find saf More...

Sebuah buku yang baik, dengan sebuah plot menarik dan diceritakan dengan gaya yang berbeda.

Apakah pengulangan akan deskripsi mata, seks, dan hal lainya merupakan sesuatu yang penting saya sendiri tidak tahu. Tetapi penekanan akan seks ini laiknya sedikit membuat saya risau ketika membaca buku ini. Bukannya apa, Saadawi menggambarkan suatu gambaran dunia yang berebeda dari yang saya ketahui - dan dunia ini sepertinya bukan dunia untuk wanita.

Pengantar yang dibuat oleh Mochtar Lubis merupakan se More...

This is perhaps the MOST difficult book that I have ever read. It was written in the 70's, but reads just like it could be today. Today, violence against women around the world is arguably the most pressing issue we face as it is expressed in a variety of ways and places and holds within its breadth many other concerns like poverty, slavery, human trafficking, etc. I have read a few books on these issues recently. All of them difficult given the subject matter but very worthwhile and important f More...

Woman at point zero is a tragic story about a girl named Firdaus. The author, Nawal El Saadawi visited a prison and interviewed her. It turns out that Firdaus is indeed a prostitute however that isn't exactly what she wants to be. As a child her father had many wives and even more children. Since day 1, she has seen her father disrespect women and treat them like dirt. For example, since he had so many children, when a female died he would do nothing, when a male died he would beat whoever was h More...

Hati-hati jika Anda ingin membaca buku ini, terutama kaum perempuan. Karena begitu Anda terbius di kalimat pertama, maka Anda tidak akan berhenti sampai halaman terakhir. Isinya begitu memabukkan dan membius pikiran-pikiran wanita tentang feminisme.

Firadus, seorang perempuan yang memiliki masa kecil menyedihkan, hanya karena dia perempuan. Ia mengutarakan kisah hidupnya, bagaimana gambaran kehidupan perempuan di negeri-negeri Dunia Ketiga. Ada suatu kalimat di novel ini yang mungkin dapat membe More...

Woman At Point Zero
El Saadawi

How can a woman save herself when she does not have many options in life?

I can not describe how much this book opened my eyes to the world's cruelty and to how some people in our world don't really have much of a choice but to be who they become. El Saadawi truly touched me and I never thought i would be able to understand Firdaus, but somehow I did and believe it is woman like her that show us a little thing about the way life just works that is unexpected.

It is th More...

Edisi pertama : Agustus 1989
Edisi Sembilan : Maret 2006
xiv + 156 hlm. : 11 x 17 cm
Yayasan Obor Indonesia

Awal saya tahu novel tentang ini yaitu ketika saya membaca sebuah tulisan berjudul “Perempuan dan Gugatan Terhadap Budaya Patriarki”. Dalam tulisan itu terdapat cerita dari novel yang berjudul “Perempuan di Titik Nol” karya Nawal El Saadawi. Ketika itu saya membayangkan bahwa itu merupakan sebuah novel yang besar dan tebal. Tapi ternyata novel itu merupakan novel kecil dan relative tipis namun More...

I will abbreviate this book as WAPZ. WAPZ is about a woman named Firdaus who gets sexually abused by everyone because she is a woman. Eventually, she becomes a prostitute, realizing it was more situational than marriage, and becomes so successful, she had men figuratively grovelling at her feet.
Firdaus was born to acknowledge that men are better than women. She had this experience where her childhood friend, a little boy who I would like to punch in the fa... I mean, a little boy who would play More...

This Book was good. It made me sad though, to think that in this world even today women would be treated with such disrespect. It truly is disgusting. I mean I believe that killing your pimp might be too harsh but at the same time I think that killing them would also be fair because they ruined your life and caused you so much pain and suffering so why not do it to them. I know I sound really harsh but it is true. Then again you are still killing someone so it is on the bad side as well. So I do More...

A woman in Egypt in the 70s had very little choice what happens in their life, the options consist of becoming a slave, a wife or a prostitute. As a small girl Firdaus was abused by the people who should have cared for her the most, and when her Uncle takes her off to Cairo to look after her, after the death of her parents you hope that her life might change for the better, especially when she started school and passed her exams. Unfortunately her results don't count for much on the job front so More...

A brutal and disturbing story, this (though mercifully short). Firdaus tells her story with an incantatory force, daring the reader to try and judge her. The reader is just as implicated as the psychiatrist in the frame story, who experiences emotions told in words that echo Firdaus's. It's a compelling reading experience to follow this woman's growing awareness, although it takes us to a nihilistic place. Some paragraphs particularly impressed me as insights, like seeing that money is treated a More...

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently discussed whether medical doctors should perform female circumcisions in hospitals at the request of families. The proposal argued that it would be safer and more hygenic for girls to be placed under professional medical care while undergoing the procedure. The proposal was immediately vetoed, citing that no medical reason exists for why this procedure should take place. Egyptian psychiatrist and novelist, Nawal El Saadawi, was consulted on the i More...

I was reluctant to read this book. First and foremost, I am not a fan of biography, nor do I enjoy fiction. And this book sounded like the kind that crosses the boundary between both. And when I learned the book was a biography about one woman's execution for killing a man, I was convinced I would not enjoy reading it. Intellectually, I am a sociologist. I am intrigued by structures of power, by the structure of inequality and inequity. I am always looking for the forest, not the trees. I seek t More...

buku kecil ini bagiku punya kekuatan tersendiri. firdaus membuat malu orang-orang yang merasa bersih. dia menyindir perempuan yang hanya punya cita-cita menikah dengan perempuan murahan, bahkan lebih murah dari pelacur seperti firdaus...hahahah
caranya memaki laki-laki dan kehidupan...
firdaus mengendalikan hidupnya sendiri...
dan rela mati ketika kendali itu diambil
keberaniannya memang mebuatku iri...
wak pokoke banyak yang bisa dipahami dari buku tipis ini...

Title: Women At Point Zero
Author: Nawal El Saadawi
By far, this was the best book that I was forced to read by my school. The protagonist, Firdaus, tells her story at the last minute before she has to die.
The setting is in Egypt, where the woman's role in society was either a slave as a wife, or used as a prostitute. As you can see, neither was not a pleasant choice. Firdaus herself, chose to be a prostitute because in her point of view, this gave her the freedom to choose who she wanted to sl More...

"I KNEW THAT MY PROFESSION HAD BEEN INVENTED BY MEN....................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."

Now at first reading this seems to be some feminist rant at the male dominated world but whilst the 'heroine' of this book is indeed a woman, as is the writer, there is more to this book than that.

The book tells the story of Firdaus who is born into poverty to a father who does not More...

Many people say that some people are born with a good life and some aren’t, this includes Firdaus. Firdaus doesn’t have a happy childhood that’s why maybe when she grew up she has a horrible life. At a young age being violated then, growing up to be a successful prostitute, then became a murder (killing her pimp). People fight and work hard for what they want, and for Firdaus to get her freedom, her only way was to kill her pimp. I think when Firdaus killed her pimp, it was for self-defense, the More...

This gripping story of a prostitute, living in Cairo, Egpyt tells her life from living in the lower class and making her way up to the middle-upper class by sleeping with men. Nawal El Saadawi is a psychiatrist who goes to prison to write a story about Firdaus, the prostitute. Just a few days before her execution Firdaus tells Nawal about her life-her growth as a young girl to becoming a prostitute, leading up to the point where she kills her own pimp, which is why she is placed in jail with a d More...

read this,

So much is packed into this tiny little book, it’s unbelievable. The character’s voice still resonates with me to this day. In some respects, I absolutely loathed who she was and what she represented. Or perhaps it was just the intensity and rawness of the author’s description that still sends chills up my spine…Either way, this was one of the best books I’ve ever read. Truly – it is a must-read for all!

saya sudah baca buku ini lebih dari 3 kali, dan masih terkagum2 dengan tokoh utamanya. ia adalah seorng wanita yang dijadikan korban dari budaya patriarkis, kemunafikan dalam suatu budaya religius, sesosok yang dianggap lemah tetapi justru memiliki kekuatan yang luar biasa. dari mulut seorang dan kaum yang lemah justru menghasilkan sesuatu yang diluar dugaan masyarakat. sangat bagus, sangat feminis, sangat kuat..

This book is a fictional memoir in the perspective of a physcologist who meets with an inmate named Firdaus who was convcoted for murder. firdaus refuses to make contact with anyone. But she decides to speak with the physcologist. So she tells the physcologist about her whole life story how she was constantly abused and about her life as a prostitute. She describes it as giving her power over people because she named her price and she could deny someone's request for her services. Firdaus is bei More...

its a very gripping story, wonderfully told. the writers is very skilled and weaves the fabric of egyptian society with her carefull language and use of words. i think she is very talented and this obviously is written in the tradition of revolutionary feminist literature but with original egyptian/arab framework. its a compelling story, i wonder how it was written in arabic. the only crticism would be that the depiction of the male gender was incredibly bleak and perhaps the female cruelty to o More...