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Editorial Review Product Description
Waris Dirie leads a double life -- by day, she is an international supermodel and human rights ambassador for the United Nations; by night, she dreams of the simplicity of life in her native Somalia and the family she was forced to leave behind.Desert Flower, her intimate and inspiring memoir, is a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered about the beauty of African life, the chaotic existence of a supermodel, or the joys of new motherhood.Waris was born into a traditional Somali family, desert nomads who engaged in such ancient and antiquated customs as genital mutilation and arranged marriage. At twelve, she fled an arranged marriage to an old man and traveled alone across the dangerous Somali desert to Mogadishu -- the first leg of an emotional journey that would take her to London as a house servant, around the world as a fashion model, and eventually to America, where she would find peace in motherhood and humanitarian work for the U.N. Today, as Special Ambassador for the U.N., she travels the world speaking out against the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation, promoting women's reproductive rights, and educating people about the Africa she fled -- but still deeply loves. Desert Flower will be published simultaneously in eleven languages throughout the world and is currently being produced as a feature film by Rocket Pictures UK.Amazon.com Review
By age 6, Waris Dirie was herding her family's sheep andgoats, fending off hyenas and wild dogs as the family carved a paththrough Africa. She was just twice that age when she ran off into thevast furnace of the Somali desert to escape an arranged marriage to amuch older man. Traveling for days without food and water, she madeher way to Mogadishu and later to London as a servant to her uncle,the Somalian ambassador. There she wrestled with culture shock and gother first taste of the modeling life that eventually brought her intothe public eye. Dirie is resilient, having survived drought, hunger,and the ritual female genital mutilation that marks a step towardwomanhood among some traditional Moslems but, argue critics, steals orruins many girls' lives. "As we traveled throughout Somalia," saysDirie, "we met families and I played with their daughters.When wevisited them again, the girls were missing. No one spoke the truthabout their absence or even spoke of them at all." As a specialambassador to the United Nations, Dirie has spoken out loudly on thissubject and championed environmental causes, too. How much of hersometimes breathless story is gospel truth and how much embellished ishard to say. Like Dirie herself, though, the combination isintriguing, powerful, and unique. --Francesca Coltrera ... Read more Customer Reviews (86) 
MUST READ
You must read this book.........what an eye opener.Waris Dirie has such inner strength....it's amazing all that she went through and she is still STANDING!!!!You would be surprised by what is going on in other countries to people.We here in the U.S. have no idea!!!!!!!!!!After reading this book, your PRAYER LIFE should change!!!!
Hell is in crimes against humanity
An emotional trip of a woman from the desert of Somalia to the United Nations. I will not follow that road which is detailed and marked by exploitation, scarification, mutilation, alienation, rejection, and all other words in that line rhyming with immigration. The film is dealing with one day in the life of an Africa woman that changed that very life into an ordeal. It is called excision and it is performed at the age of three. Beside the direct death rate, and even the indirect death rate (later when pregnant and wanting to deliver the baby) those who survived are made psychologically inferior and dependent. They are not able to control their lives and to develop the energies that would transform the whole African continent. A tradition coming from Black Africa that was later integrated by Islam when it arrived, though Islam was careful not to spread the practice in the population that did not have that tradition, particularly the Arabs. It is nothing but the survival of an enslaving sexual practice that has to disappear from this earth as fast as possible. Yet we are far from it. Excision, and I will say like all other sexual mutilation, is a crime against humanity, including in the US where 95 per cent of males are circumcised. They have even invented a word for natural: uncircumcised and uncut, which is the barbaricbigotry of some turned into lexical tyranny.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
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The book arrived in the timeframe indicated in like new condition.I would use this vendor in the future.
War and circumcision are purely the result of the aggression of men
This autobiography tells the extraordinary itinerary of Waris Dirie from a run away nomad child at the age of twelve in Somalia to a fashion super model working all over the world.
As a nomad child living in the desert, Waris Dirie was part of pure nature, pure life, where the simplest things (rain, a sack of rice) were appreciated as a gift from heaven. Every drop of water was respected as a precious commodity. She lived without a calendar along the lines traced by the sun.
Once in the West, she was astonished that so many people were preoccupied with NOT eating and were bankrupt of time.
However, this `paradisiacal' life was extremely painfully and severely impaired by two major events.
She was circumcised at the age of five (clitoris, labia minora and most of the labia majora were cut off). The wound was stitched leaving only a minuscule hole (the diameter of a matchstick) for peeing and periods. The `operation' was made with a broken razor blade containing dried blood on the jagged edge of the blade. The `doctor' spat on it and wiped it against her dress. Many children die as a result of this mutilation as they bleed to death, are infected by bacteria (tetanus) or don't survive the psychological shock.
This expensive intervention was considered a good investment, as virgins are a hot commodity on the African marriage market (the real unspoken reason for circumcision). In fact, children are treated as cattle and can be exchanged for other cattle (camels).
The second event was her arranged marriage at the age of twelve with a man of sixty for five camels. She ran away from home all alone. A most remarkable life story began.
Notwithstanding her horrible ordeal (`I will never know the pleasures of sex. I feel a cripple'), Waris Dirie continues to love her family.
The real culprits are men. `The tribal wars in Somalia, like the practice of circumcision are brought about by the aggression and selfishness of men. Both acts stem from their obsession with their territory and their possessions including women. Perhaps if we cut their balls off, Somalia would become a paradise without that constant surge of testosterone, there'd be no war, no killing, no thieving, no rape.'
For her, like for everybody, peace is one of the greatest benefits of all.
This autobiography is a must read for all those who want to know from where we all come from (nomads).
Desert Flower
Best contemporary biop I've read!Incredible story!I've had my granddaughters read it, especially when they complain there is nothing to do!Nothing to eat!I think this should be required reading in freshman year high schools!She is an amazing woman!
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