At just 142 pages, this Egyptian modern classic is anything but small. Published in 1975 (translated in English in 1983) is based on the true story of Firdaus, a woman who in 1974 as she awaited her execution at the Qanatir Prison after having committed a murder, she accepted to meet and talk with Nawal El Saadawi the author of this book who at the time was a psychiatrist doing a research on "neurosis in Egyptian women." This is not exactly a novel although not fully non-fiction either. As Miriam Cooke wrote in the preface: "This novel, or rather creative non-fiction, takes the reader into the cell of a woman the night before her execution" (Cooke, Woman at Point Zero, Foreword VII). This book tells the earth-shattering story of a woman's life in Egypt (or women's lives) so abused and exploited (sexually, physically, and emotionally) that will have your heart bleeding and anger you at the impossibility of living in a society where abusive men and the hypocricy of religious leaders and corrupt government officials have all the power. This woman (and all women in this type of society) stood no chance, and I don't think we are left to wonder if any crime was really committed by Firdaus or who was the true crimimal after all. After hearing Firdaus narrating her story, the answer is pretty clear.

The author and psychiatrist Nawal El Saadawi is a prominent Egyptian writer and known to fight for women's rights. In 1981, just 7 years after her meeting with Firdaus, she too was arrested and imprisoned "under the decree issued by Sadat on 5 September 1981" (El Saadawi, Preface). In 2004, she was a presidential Candidate in Egypt: "In July 2005, however, she was forced to withdraw her candidacy in the face of ongoing government persecution" (El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero, About the Author).