The Desert Flower

Waris Dirie is a top model, writer and artist who was born in Somalia in 1965, actually she fights against the genital mutilation of young girls in Africa. In 2002 she founded her own ONG.

Waris Dirie was born in a muslim nomadic family of the Darod Clan, Waris means "desert flower'', her birth date is unknown we only know that she was born in 1965.
When she was only three years old she was mutilated by her grandmother.
At the age of thirteen, she went to Mogadishu in order to escape from her marriage with an old man.

She lived there for a few years and she after went to London to work at the house of his uncle, the ambassador of Somalia, but when the war broke up in Somalia her uncle left and she had to work in McDonald's and she started to learn English every evening after work.

One day she was discovered by the photographer Terence Donovan who made her the first black model who appeared in the magazine Vogue.
After, she worked for firmas like Chanel, Cartier, Levi's, Versace... as a model.

In 1997, she was interviewed by Laura Ziv .There it was the first time where she talked about her genital mutilation.
This woman had received many awards because of her effort and persistence in this war against the FGM and she had published two books about her life who are becoming very famous.

Bibliografía:
Donesdeterrasa  Hola  El Mundo