 Name: Aisha Akram

 Roll no: 29
 Semester 1 ( Mphil in English)
 Subject: Women writings.
 Topic: Character of Uncle in the novel “ Women at point zero” by
Nawaal El Sadawi
 Submitted to : Dr Qamar Khushi.

Character of Uncle:
The man who takes Firdaus in after her parents die
Firdaus’s uncle is a complicated figure in her life, and in many
ways her relationship with him forms a template for her
relationships with the other men in the story.
When Firdaus is a young girl living with her mother and father,
her uncle represents a kind of freedom. He is a scholar, and he
lives in Cairo, far away from the rural world of Firdaus’s
immediate family. Yet he also sexualizes young Firdaus, as
shown in the way he caresses her thighs.
Though Firdaus is uncomfortable with the way in which he
touches her, she does not object because it doesn’t occur to her
to do so. As a result of this and her father’s behavior toward her
mother, Firdaus learns to think that men own women’s bodies.
Despite this, her uncle is still her savior.
After Firdaus’s parents die, her uncle brings her to Cairo, where
they sleep in the same bed and live like a married couple, though
it isn’t clear whether they have a sexual relationship. Firdaus’s
uncle sends her to school and consequently provides her with a
much better life than the one she lived with her parents. However,
her uncle soon abandons the life of a scholar to become a civil
servant.
At this point, Firdaus learns that men value power above all else.
She also learns how insignificant she is to her uncle when
compared to his thirst for power.
In order to advance, Firdaus’s uncle marries above his station.
Because his new wife does not care for Firdaus, Firdaus is sent to
boarding school. Firdaus’s uncle turns out to be just as selfish as
all of the other men in her life. When he eventually marries
Firdaus off to his wife’s old and disfigured uncle for a large sum of
money, he confirms Firdaus’s belief that she is alone in the world,
and that men are horrible hypocrites who will do anything for
money and power.
Firdaus’s uncle is a religious scholar and later a government official. He
teaches Firdaus to read and write, and is her only childhood mentor,
but he also sexually abuses her frequently. When Firdaus’s parents die,
he takes her to Cairo with him to live and attend school. However,
when he marries an upper-class wife who does not like Firdaus, he
marries her off to an old man Sheikh Mahmoud in order to be rid of
Firdaus and take the dowry. Although Firdaus’s uncle is a religious man,
he beats and rapes his wife, demonstrating the hypocrisy of religious
men in Firdaus’s world.

Thankyou.