Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey Of A Desert Nomad

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Waris is prepared to risk being killed by some fundamentalist because of all the things she has to tell. At the end of this affecting and at times very entertaining book, Dirie's metamorphosis from desert nomad into jetsetting nomad culminates in a post as a human rights ambassador to the UN, where, these days, Dirie campaigns for the eradication of female circumcision and women's rights around the globe. In reality, Safa is still not cut and Waris Dirie is horrified, as she gets informed that the cutting ritual is imminent. Let it also be said, for those critical of her lifestyle, that if she would not have departed Somalia, she would have been tending goats, been burdened with several children, likely would have been illiterate, and dominated by a much older man. A book not only to touch the heart, but one that should make us all want to take a stand to stop this cruel practise.

Penniless and speaking little English, she became a janitor in Mc Donalds where she was famously discovered by a fashion photographer. Sada ima 13 godina, pa onda ima 5, pa ima oko 9, pa ima tri, pa ima 11 i onda je manekenka, pa nakon toga ima 9 godina i onda 13. I was under the impression that this memoir strongly focused on the author's experiences with FGM and her work with the Desert Flower Foundation to advocate for women's rights in Africa. She runs away to Mogadishu and eventually gets a job as a maid for an uncle who is the Somalian ambassador to England.a fascinating and harrowing memoir, especially during the first half, but waris has such an incredible story to tell. She was circumcised at five, fled an arranged marriage at 12, then became a Pirelli girl in her teens. Through projects like “Save a little desert flower”, which seeks to protect little girls in Africa from FGM.

In 1997 Harper Collins in New York published Waris Dirie’s biography “Desert Flower” and the book quickly became an international bestseller. Today she is fighting as UN Ambassador against female genital mutilation, which happens to 8,000 girls every day.The author does bring up a very significant subject – at the age of five or six – she suffered the abomination of female genital mutilation (FGM). Waris Dirie speaks in her book about her anger towards Africa, a continent dominated by corruption and daily violence.

It was in McDonalds that her striking beauty was "discovered", leading to a career in modelling and another as an ardent campaigner against female genital mutilation (circumcision). Her previous work includes the international bestseller Desert Flower , which was adapted as a feature film. Rather, it is a striking account of a personal odyssey that began in the Somali desert, where Dirie grew up without shoes, living amid nomadic tribes and tyrannized by patriarchal strictures. From the moment Waris runs, the book becomes not only a survival challenge for the young girl but also a cultural and educational challenge.Her story thus begins in the desert and moves from there to Mogadishu, to London, to Paris, to New York. She trekked solo to Mogadishu – and from there managed through relatives, to get a posting as a maid at the Somalia London embassy. In this book, Dirie describes her journey from her childhood in a traditional family of desert nomads in Somalia. Maybe it's cultural, or part of growing up in a tough world and having tough experiences, but Dirie seemed superficial, self-involved, and Machiavellian to me, using people when it suited her and discarding them when it didn't, falling out with family members without taking much responsibility for her own behavior, failing to respect people's wishes at times, etc. 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 traveled alone across the dangerous Somali desert to Mogadishu--the first leg of a remarkable journey that would take her to London, where she worked as a house servant; then to nearly every corner of the globe as an internationally renowned fashion model; and ultimately to New York City, where she became a human rights ambassador for the U.Dirie's beauty led her to a career as a fashion model; her experience as a young girl subjected to circumcision led her to speak out against the practice and eventually become a human rights ambassador to the United Nations. But also a nightmare, because Waris Dirie became a victim of a cruel ritual when she was five years old: she got circumcised. When her father attempts to arrange for 12-year-old Dirie to marry an old man, the strong-willed girl flees her family and her culture's stifling traditions for women.