Zero

After reading woman at point zero, I was completely shaken. Firdaus was not born into humanity, rather she seems to have been born at point zero. How can a life that begins with such senseless brutality ever become something more. It seems like from the get, Firaus was trapped. The body, especially women's bodies, are made into cages in this novel. It seemed that the theme in this novel was that men inflict damage and women receive it. The body is a vehicle for this trade. What was very surprising to me was the way that Firdaus decided to use her body as well. After the years of sexual violence and outright beatings, Firdaus does not rebel against the perception of her body as a vehicle and a cage, but instead caters to that perception. Her choice to become a prostitute was the only choice really given to her (that and death, very existential) being that there was no other way to live without some amount of objectification.

It is easy to understand why she chooses is, as the first striking image of her mother and of female authority is that of the cruel, penetrating gaze. The eyes, those searching, judging, eyes take away any humanity from Firdaus and turn her into a mere surface image. Something to absorb and reflect. She explains that," 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" The body is the perfect tool for men to use women because it is so binding, receives blows, feels physical pain, and traps/hides the woman inside.

When Firdaus decides to completely take herself out of the game, she does so by committing murder. The pinnacle of anti social behavior, it is only by completely rebelling against the social order that she is able to free herself. However, she cannot free herself and still live in the world and so she is condemned to die, and accepts this. She says, “I have triumphed over both life and death because I no longer desire to live, nor do I any longer fear to die.” Every breath is a battle against life. Every day that Firdaus lives in this way, not caring about life,love, order, men, honor, is a life she feels is free. This was incredibly hard to read because I do not want this to be the case, that she should be glad to die, if only to start again. A part of me wants there to be another way but that is not possible, and is made more cruelly poignant by what eventually happened to the author of this book.

“Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those

who are harder than life itself.”