FOOLS FOR LOVE: PROSTITUTES IN THE THIEF AND THE DOGS AND WOMAN AT POINT ZERO

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FOOLS FOR LOVE: PROSTITUTES IN ‘THE THIEF AND THE DOGS’ AND ‘WOMAN AT POINT ZERO’

        A prostitute is one who solicits and accepts payment for sex acts, but this definition does not encompass all the aspects of prostitution that have been portrayed in the two texts. Nur and Firdaus are prostitutes in the two books: ‘The thief and the dogs’ and ‘Woman at point zero’. Both of them are looking love and belonging in their lives but destiny does not favor them and leads them to a life that they did not want, a life which was filled with tortures and misery. Both of them end up being prostitutes, not only in terms of getting paid for sexual acts, but also as selling their soul, honor and mind unworthily. A prostitute is also one who sells one's abilities, talent, honor or name for an unworthy purpose*. These are not the only two prostitutes in the two texts. There are multiple characters who have sold their characteristics for something in return. Hence it is transmitted to the reader that prostitution is not necessarily selling one’s physical self but also one’s moral, humanitarian, religious and economic qualities to gain something in return.

         Firdaus is the principle protagonist of the book ‘Woman at point zero’. She was looking for love and affection in her life, looking for somebody whom she can trust and can believe, but unfortunately in the Egyptian society that Nawal El Sadaawi portrayed, this kind of man did not exist. Wherever she went, whichever man she met, every one of them caused distrust and misery. Instead, the men she trusted would sexually take advantage of her. Firdaus also fell in true love once with a man called Ibrahim. She says that love had made her a different person. She then became a prostitute who gave her complete self, her mind and body, to someone whom she loved from the bottom of her heart. Later she finds out that Ibrahim had got engaged to somebody else. She got nothing but suffering, distrust and misery from Ibrahim too. She had never felt a deeper pain. Hence the reader is deeply touched with what happens to Firdaus and sympathises with her. Firdaus had then lost hope in love and did not trust a single man. Hence she says that :

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All the men I did get to know, every single man of them, has filled me with but one desire: to lift my hand and bring it smashing down on his face.”

   The reader can sense Firdaus’ frustration regarding men in her life and agrees with her in this statement.

          It was very similar with Nur. Though she was not the principle protagonist of the book, her character was vitally important. She was in love with Said even before he went to jail. When the police were looking for Said, he had no ...

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