“ Slavery ”, “ humiliating ”, “ abusing ”, “ filthy ”, “ degrading ”, “ easy way out” . All these stigmas are used when describing a prostitute, yet it is all this that grants Firdaus utter freedom. This novel uncovers the naked truth of what it means to be a woman in an egyptian patriarchal society in the early 1980’s. In the world that Firdaus knows, women exist to serve men, women belong to men, women reside in the power of the hands of men. Female humans are objects, possessions, slaves and pleasure machines; in Firdaus society “all women are prostitutes of one kind or another” . She accepts the crude reality of what women are; arguing that “men force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body is that of a wife” Wives are maltreated prostitutes who trade their sexual service for regular subsistence, housing and support of their offspring. Prostitutes are autonomous prostitutes who trade their sexual service for freedom. In the end however, Firdaus co...
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