PROBING WOMEN’S OPPRESSION IN EGYPTIAN CULTURE PRESENTED THROUGH NAWAL EL SAADWAI’S CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Abstract

In this research, Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi is examined in terms of how women are portrayed as oppressed and suppressed. Specifically, this novel addresses the necessity for women to think over their involvement in the brutality, oppression, molestation, and suppression of other women in both Egypt and the wider world. The harsh experiences presented by Nawal El Saadawi clearly, are experienced by women in her male-dominated society (Egypt). Egyptian women faced intimidation, abuse, sexual harassment, and violence in their patriarchal society, all of which are depicted aesthetically in the novel. This research employs a Masculinist analysis of the text to argue that women not only foster an environment that is favourable to their form of unhappiness, but it also changes the suggestion of the author of a better future for Egyptian women who are living in the oppressed environment. The clear and concise argument of this research is that the theory of women's liberation, by El Saadawi, from the ongoing violence against them is completely inadequate. The representation of the conventional portrayal of women as helpless, docile, and weak has been successfully challenged in this novel, but it was unable to fully grant the long-awaited durable freedom that was anticipated of her subjugated counterpart. This research is about women's oppression. The protagonist, Firdaus is oppressed by both men and other women, as well as her eventual brief moment of freedom.