Wounding Journey: A Study of Victimization and Trauma of Women in Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero

Name of Author : Dr. Sadaf Shah & Sarfraz Lone

Abstract: The novel Woman at Point Zero written by Nawal El Saadawi projects the image of women in Egypt as wretched, inhumane, exploited and agonized. It represents the atrocities, tortures and oppression of women at the hands of both blood relatives and others in the society. The plot of the novel unfolds the traumatic and agonizing life story of Firdaus, who since her very childhood is maimed at every step. Due to financial insecurity and wretched condition of her family she cannot get enough to fill her tiny belly. After the death of her parents she is raised by her uncle who molests her but bears the expenses of her education in Cairo. She is made to marry a man of more than sixty, who beats her, makes her starve and forcefully does sex with her. She runs from her husband only to fall prey to the lust of a number of men. She is sexually abused by almost every man she comes in contact with. She is abused by policemen, politicians, lawyers, pimps, shopkeepers, and others. She is charged for the murder she commits and sentenced to be hanged eventually. This research work will be analysed using the concepts of trauma put forward by Dominick LaCapra and the theory of feminism put forward by Simon de Beauvoir. The concepts of acting out and working through of LaCapra will be interwoven with the concepts regarding the suppression, oppression and exploitation of women expounded by de Beauvoir.

Keywords : Trauma, Exploitation, Suppression, Oppression, Torture, Agony, Humiliation, Suffocation

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