Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

Saadawi tells the story of a real woman she met several years earlier at Qanatir Prison while doing research on the personalities of a group of female prisoners. The doctor at the prison tells her about a woman sentenced to death for killing a man and agrees to try to convince her to speak to Saadawi.

Firdaus is unlike other female murderers as she refuses to see visitors or answer the doctor's questions; she will not even sign an appeal to reduce her sentence to life imprisonment which the doctor made out for her because he does not feel she is a murderer since her eyes are so gentle. The doctor tries to convince Firdaus to see Saadawi, but she refuses.

Saadawi goes home but can think of nothing but Firdaus. When Saadawi asks the warder to see Firdaus the next...