Nawal El Saadawi, an Egyptian novelist, doctor and militant writer on Arab woman's problems and their struggle for liberation, was born in the village of Kafr Tahla on October 27, 1931 (Speace 1,3). She has been married three times and is now living with her present husband Sherif Hetata, who is also the translator of this book (Speace 1). When Saadawi was younger, she refused to accept the limitations imposed by both religion and colonial oppression on most women of rural origin. She qualified as a medical doctor in 1955 and rose to become Egypt's Director of Public Health in 1

958 (Speace 1). Since she began to write over twenty-five years ago, her books have concentrated on women (Hafez 450-451). In 1972, her first non-fiction book, Woman and Sex, evoked the antagonism of highly placed political and theological authorities. She was dismissed from the Ministry of Health and her position as editor of Health magazine due to the opposition (Speace 3). Saadawi also lost her status as Assistant General Secretary in the Medical Association in Egypt ("El-Saadawi, Nawal" 734). From 1973 to 1976, she worked on researching women and neurosis in the Ain Shams University's Faculty of Medicine. She also was a writer for the High Institute of Literature and Science in Cairo at this time. From 1979 to 1980 Saadawi was the United Nations Advisor for the Woman's Program in Africa (ECA) and Middle East (ECWA) (Speace 1).

I really enjoyed the novel Woman at Point Zero by Nawal el Saadawi. It is a very interesting and eventful book. Saadawi does not spend a lot of time at one certain moment in Firdaus's life. She only includes the important details that seemed to be relevant to the main concept of the story. An example of this is when Firdaus got married (Saadawi 42-45). Saadawi only tells about the actions that pertain to how Firdaus feels towards men. For instance that Firdaus's husband Sheikh Mahmoud was always watching her at the dinner table, and even though he could not eat much he would always eat what ever Firdaus would leave on her plate (Saadawi 43). I thought that it was very relevant to show how Firdaus's husband escalated from an occasional beating to hitting her with his shoe and even a stick and sometimes for no reason at all (Saadawi 44-45). In only four pages, Saadawi gives a real striking portrayal of what a woman's life as a wife is like in a third world country. I feel that this is an important aspect of the culture of people from Egypt, and that Saadawi is showing the reader that there are not many positive aspects of being a housewife there. There was only one positive facet of Firdaus getting married mentioned during these four pages. This was that she now was allowed to sleep on a soft bed rather than the wooden sofa at her uncle's (Saadawi 43).

She has since devoted her time to being a writer, journalist and a worldwide speaker on women's issues. Since 1983, when her book Woman at Point Zero first was published in English, thirteen more of her books have been translated and published in English. Amireh says that this makes Saadawi the most visible of Arab women writers. Saadawi has also made her way into many American college classrooms due to this popularity (Amireh 1).

Saadawi, Nawal el.

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Approximate Word count = 1800
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)