Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey Of A Desert Nomad

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An important book that manages to pass its message without melodramatics and exaggerations, talking about the difficulties but above all about the joy of life. Her book offers extraordinary firsthand insight into FGM, thought to be performed now on more than two million girls a year. Without going into too much detail, she managed to convey the horror and trauma of being subjected to female genital circumcision, a practise that causes more problems, than it prevents, and convinces you, that as a woman, we have a duty, irregardless of where we come from in the world, we should all raise our voices and try have this horrific practise stopped, before more young girls are subjected to it, and potentially die. She then underwent surgery to unstitch her vagina (in an unforgettable detail, she explains how amazing it felt to urinate in less than ten minutes and menstruate in less than ten days).

Dirie redeemed herself somewhat in my eyes with her commitment to activism, but I still felt I couldn't really connect with her. In 2007 the French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented her with the “Chévalier de la Légion d’Honneur”. Since then, the book has been published in 65 licensed editions, was number 1 on the bestseller lists in many countries (in Germany, for example, the book stayed in the Top Ten list of best-selling books published in the magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ for a total of 120 weeks) and has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide. But the book is far more than merely an experience of bearing witness to what was done to one girl and what continues to be done to others.

Penniless and speaking little English, she became a janitor in Mc Donalds where she was famously discovered by a fashion photographer. What I didn't know before reading this book is that the practice of FGM is actually increasing not decreasing as immigrant are taking this terrible custom with them into the western world. I read it within 24 hours, and found myself mesmerised by this womans story, and how she overcame obstacles that most of us wouldn't dream of, to get to where she is today. While reading „The Desert Flower" I found myself immersed in Waris' honest and simple narrative of her life.

Her story thus begins in the desert and moves from there to Mogadishu, to London, to Paris, to New York. El libro es un recorrido por toda su vida, empezando por su niñez en una familia nómada de Somalia, hasta convertirse en una famosa modelo en Europa y América. More striking than these desriptions is the first hand account of a female genital mutilation (FMG) and its life long consequences. This is extremely humbling, especially as she still appreciates the things that western society hates- rain, and a comparitively endless supply of food. Tačiau planuojamos priverstinės vestuvės buvo paskutinis lašas, paskatinęs ją, be jokio tikslaus plano, pabėgti iš gimtųjų kraštų.

The foundation’s team is made ​​up of men and women committed to gender equality, human rights and all of them share Waris Dirie’s ideal: Ending Female Genital Mutilation. But the book is remarkable less for its deliberately dramatic set pieces, and more for its haunting evocation of the little-told life of Somalian nomads, seen from a child's telling perspective, where life centres on the beloved camels, the horrors of womanhood are still an exciting mystery, and the nights are filled with the smell of frankincense. With her story Waris Dirie brings awareness to the terrible tradition of female genital mutilation in Africa.

Her reflections on special moments in her life as a nomad and as a supermodel were honest and often humorous. The most compelling portions of Dirie's story are her graphic portrayals of the practice of female genital mutilation and the impact it has on women who long to control their bodies and their lives. She describes her life as a servant, McDonald's worker and her pursuit of her career and the legal resident status it required. She’s an accomplished public speaker who has performed at numerous venues, including Cinequest, LitQuake, the Ford Foundation, the United Nations Foundation, the Women, Peace and Conflict Lecture and Film Series, and the American Women’s Association of Rome.It's easy to forget that Dirie's memoir is a book about someone whose success has come from posing for the camera.