Waris Dirie

Infobox Person
name = Waris Dirie
واريس ديري


caption =
birth_date = 1965 (unverified)
birth_place = Somalia
occupation = Model, UN Special Ambassador (1997-2003), author
nationality = Somali
children an= Aleeke (born 1997)
title = Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation, Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur

Waris Dirie ( _so. "Waris Diriiye", _ar. واريس ديري) (born 1965 in Somalia) is a Somali-Austrian model and a former UN advocate for the abolition of female genital cutting.

Early life

Dirie was born into a nomadic clan in Somalia. Her home was a portable hut woven from grass. According to her autobiography, at age five, her mother held her down while a local woman circumcised her. Afterwards, she was stitched up tightly, leaving a hole the diameter of a matchstick, which made it nearly impossible to walk. "I felt not complete with myself as a woman. Some days I felt so powerless," she said. "When I think back about that, it still disturbs me. But coming back over that is still the hardest thing for me because you have to learn about yourself, you have to feel comfortable with yourself." Although Dirie survived the procedure, her sister and two cousins did not. Waris ran away from her home because of an arranged marriage.

Modeling career

Dirie fled Somalia at the age of thirteen because her father gave her in marriage to a 61-year-old man in exchange for five camels. She escaped the marriage by traveling to her sister's home in Mogadishu, Somalia. She then moved around the city, living with aunts and uncles until she got a maid's job working for her uncle. She lived in her uncle's home, in London, and hid her passport when he was going to return her. She ended up staying in Britain illegally and surviving by scrubbing floors at McDonald's.

By chance, she was discovered by photographer Terence Donovan, who put her face on the cover of the 1987 Pirelli calendar. From there, her career took off, being placed in ads for designers such as Chanel. "It's very sad that I had to make the choice to leave my country and at the same time I did not want to leave," she said. "Africa is different. I was young. I had nothing to worry about. I had my family, I had my animals, I had my simple life. It was beautiful."

Dirie now lives in Vienna, Austria with her son, Sharmarke Abdullahi (born 1997), by her former companion, the American jazz musician Dana Murray. [Dirie, Waris, "Desert Dawn," Virago Press, 2003] But she still feels the contrasts between the West and her war-torn home. "Here it seems like it is chaos forever and I'm trying to sit down for a moment and there's no time for that," she laughed. "In Somalia we don't have clocks so we don't care what time it is. But in the West, everything is money-money, power, sucking, sucking away. It is never enough."

In 1987, Waris played a minor role in the Bond movie "The Living Daylights". In 2005 she became an Austrian citizen.

Contrary to popular belief Waris is not related to fellow Somali model Iman. [ [http://www.cnn.com/STYLE/9512/waris/ Waris: From Somalia to modeling] "CNN.com" December 6, 1995, Janine Sharell] . In her book Desert Flower, Waris states that Iman's mother was good friends with Waris's aunty, with whom Waris once lived with in London.

Humanitarian work

In 1997, Waris Dirie quit modelling to focus on her work against female genital mutilation. That year UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. [ [http://www.un.org/advocates/2000/bios.htm Messengers of Peace and Goodwill Ambassadors at the United Nations] - 23 October 2000]

Her autobiographical novel "Desert Flower", which tells the story of her own childhood and genital mutilation, has been printed in numerous languages and topped best-seller lists in Europe. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901020715-300618,00.html Somalia's Desert Flower] "TIME" July 7 2002 By HELEN GIBSON ] [ [http://www.waris-dirie-foundation.com/web/e_index.htm Waris Dirie Foundation] ]

In 2007 she received the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur for her humanitarian work. [ [http://www.elysee.fr/elysee/elysee.fr/francais/salle_de_presse/2007/juillet/remise_de_decoration_le_12_juillet.79067.html Communiqué de la Présidence de la République annonçant la remise de décoration par M. Nicolas SARKOZY, Président de la République.] "Élysée Palace", July 11, 2007.]

Incidents

Attack

Waris Dirie was attacked in March 2004 at her home in Vienna. Then aged 40, she had moved from her flat in Cardiff to escape the persecution of a 26-year-old Portuguese stalker who had become convinced that she loved him.

Paulo Augusto was in custody after apparently following her 1,000 miles across Europe and gaining access to her apartment by climbing through a neighbour's window. "She was so frightened and in shock that she let him in," a police spokesman, Harald Hofmayer, said. Dirie suffered minor injuries when her assailant threw her to the floor, he added. The attacker left in a taxi, only to return later on foot and smash one of the building's ground-floor windows. He was arrested when neighbours called the police. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/austria/article/0,,1166704,00.html Guardian News article, Somalian-born author attacked by stalker] ]

The suspect had met Dirie six months earlier when his brother was working at her previous residence in Wales, police said. He later broke into that home and stole items of her clothing. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/wales/3502870.stm|title=Model's stalker had previous arrests|work=BBC News|date=March 11, 2004|accessdate=2008-02-15]

Disappearance in Brussels

In the early hours of Wednesday, March 5, 2008, she went missing for 3 days in Brussels, Belgium. [Associated Press, " [http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/07/belgium.model.ap/index.html? Model, rights campaigner goes missing] ", CNN.com, March 7, 2008. Accessed March 7, 2008] She was found alive on Friday, March 7, 2008 by a plainclothes Brussels policeman [ [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jhYgel4l6oCKVGQDb7vX3YCgG0vAD8V8OPCG1 Ex-Model Waris Dirie Found in Brussels] ] , in the presence of a local window cleaner. He told press, that the couple met in a pub and were planning to spend dinner together. [ [http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=HM1P3IP8 'We gingen een leuke avond beleven'] nl icon] Dirie could not give an explanation over what happened, and only said that she was lost, and couldn't find her way back to her hotel. Since she had no money on her, she had been sleeping in hotel lobbies. Afterwards, she declared that she was kidnapped for two days by a taxi driver and the story of having been lost was to keep the press from asking her too many questions. She also knew the window cleaner for less than an hour. [ [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3181988,00.html Ex-Supermodel Activist Says Taxi Driver Abducted Her] ] A few days later, she again changed her story and told Austrian media that she was kidnapped and held by a taxi-driver who tried to rape her.Fact|date=September 2008 She also said that the Brussels police refused to help her.Fact}

Bibliography

Dirie has published three autobiographical books:

Desert Flower

First in the series, Desert Flower tells Dirie's story of enduring female circumcision; fleeing through the desert; being discovered by Terence Donovan and becoming a top fashion model. Written in collaboration with Cathleen Miller; published in 1999 by HarperCollins Publishers and republished in several languages.

Desert Dawn

A sequel to Desert Flower, describing how Dirie became a UN Special Ambassador against female genital mutilation (FGM) and returned to her family in Somalia. Written in collaboration with Jeanne D'Haem; published in 2003 by Virago Press, Limited.

Desert Children

Third in the series, Desert Children reveals how Dirie and journalist Corinna Milborn investigated the practice of FGM in Europe. Written with Corinna Milborn, translation by Sheelagh Alabaster; published in 2007 by Time Warner UK.

ee also

*Iman
*Yasmin Warsame
*Fatima Siad

References

External links

* [http://www.waris-dirie-foundation.com/ Waris Dirie Foundation]
*fashionmodel|id=Waris_Dirie|name=Waris Dirie
* [http://www.fgmnetwork.org/articles/Waris.html Reader's Digest version of Desert Flower]