Woman at Point Zero

by

Nawal El Saadawi

Ibrahim works at Firdaus’s industrial company and leads a “revolutionary” group campaigning for workers’ rights. Firdaus and Ibrahim briefly fall in love and tell each other all about their lives, their pasts, and their fears, baring their souls to each other. Firdaus willingly has sex with Ibrahim for her own pleasure. However, Ibrahim betrays Firdaus and marries the company chairman’s daughter, since this will benefit his career. This betrayal crushes Firdaus, and she decides that principled men use their tenderness to get sex for free, rather than paying for it.

Ibrahim Quotes in Woman at Point Zero

The Woman at Point Zero quotes below are all either spoken by Ibrahim or refer to Ibrahim. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Pervasive Sexism and Oppression Theme Icon
).
Part 2 Quotes

All I can remember are two rings of intense white surrounded by two circles of intense black. I only had to look into them for the white to become whiter and the black even blacker, as though sunlight was pouring into them from some magical source neither on earth, nor in the sky.

Related Characters: Firdaus (speaker), Ibrahim, Bayoumi, Firdaus’s Mother, Miss Iqbal, Firdaus’s Stepmother
Related Symbols: Eyes
Page Number: 21-22
Explanation and Analysis:

As a prostitute I was not myself, my feelings did not arise from within me. Nothing could really hurt me and make me suffer then the way I was suffering now. Never had I felt so humiliated as I felt this time. Perhaps as a prostitute I had known so deep a humiliation that nothing really counted.

Related Characters: Firdaus (speaker), Ibrahim
Page Number: 116
Explanation and Analysis:

A successful prostitute is better than a misled saint. All women are victims of deception. Men impose deception on women and punish them for being deceived, force them down to the lowest level and punish them for falling so low, bind them in marriage and then chastise them with menial service for life, or insults, or blows.

Related Characters: Firdaus (speaker), Ibrahim
Page Number: 117
Explanation and Analysis:
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Woman at Point Zero PDF

Ibrahim Quotes in Woman at Point Zero

The Woman at Point Zero quotes below are all either spoken by Ibrahim or refer to Ibrahim. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Pervasive Sexism and Oppression Theme Icon
).
Part 2 Quotes

All I can remember are two rings of intense white surrounded by two circles of intense black. I only had to look into them for the white to become whiter and the black even blacker, as though sunlight was pouring into them from some magical source neither on earth, nor in the sky.

Related Characters: Firdaus (speaker), Ibrahim, Bayoumi, Firdaus’s Mother, Miss Iqbal, Firdaus’s Stepmother
Related Symbols: Eyes
Page Number: 21-22
Explanation and Analysis:

As a prostitute I was not myself, my feelings did not arise from within me. Nothing could really hurt me and make me suffer then the way I was suffering now. Never had I felt so humiliated as I felt this time. Perhaps as a prostitute I had known so deep a humiliation that nothing really counted.

Related Characters: Firdaus (speaker), Ibrahim
Page Number: 116
Explanation and Analysis:

A successful prostitute is better than a misled saint. All women are victims of deception. Men impose deception on women and punish them for being deceived, force them down to the lowest level and punish them for falling so low, bind them in marriage and then chastise them with menial service for life, or insults, or blows.

Related Characters: Firdaus (speaker), Ibrahim
Page Number: 117
Explanation and Analysis: