My+Inspiration+-Desert+Flower-

The movie Desert Flower media type="custom" key="5783833"

Waris Dirie is a courageous African girl. She grows up in Somalia as a nomadic woman. Waris Dirie lives with her eleven siblings and her parents in a lonely desert. She was a hard-working girl with the intention of becoming a “real woman”, without being circumcised. Sadly, this was not possible and Waris was circumcised when she was five years old. When Waris was twelve years old, her father wanted her to marry a sixty-year-old man. The family gets five camels as a bride price for Waris but she runs away the following night because she does not want to marry a stranger who is so much older than she is. Running through the desert on her own is dangerous. She has to be careful. Even though she does her best, she is taken and violated by two men. She manages to free herself and flees to the coast where she stays at her sister’s house in the city of Mogadishu. Waris takes care of her sister’s children. Once she got into a dispute with her sister, the heroine ends up living with her aunt. After some years these relatives send her to the Somalian ambassador in London where she does the household chores. One day the family of the ambassador decides to go back to Somalia, whereas Waris stays in London although she does not speak a word of English. She begins to work at McDonald’s where she meets a photographer who promises to change her life forever. The young woman is afraid of him because he asks to take some photos of her because she has the most beautiful profile he has ever seen. Years later, after finding his card again, she and her girlfriend phone him. At the beginning of her career as one of the most famous top models, she has challenges with the language because she has never really learned English. In addition to that, she also does not have a correct passport which allows her to travel around the world like other top models. The marriage to an English friend makes it possible for her to travel to New York and walk on the big fashion shows. She begins a new life and is able to speak about the tradition of the female circumcision like nobody did before. Waris Dirie’s life is like a roller coaster. Everything what she manages and what she is fighting for, she does alone. In this case I imagine FGM denies her a free life. But maybe if she had not circumcised she would not have had the strength of going such a long way to the top, to live as if she had not been circumcised. The book lets people know what FGM is about and how it feels to live a life like that. Her goal is to help the women in Africa with writing a book, and spreading the word further by producing a movie in 2009. The movie is not a dry documentation but a touching movie, that shows people how important it is to have knowledge of female circumcision and its consequences. Waris Dirie was the first woman who spoke about the mutilation which demands a lot of courage. She wants the women to become more courageous and stronger to speak out and work against the mutilation of their children. Waris Dirie was the first woman who spoke about the female circumcision and she prays that one day no woman has to live with that pain. People should realize the problem and ask the question: “Did you hear it? FGM is forbidden in Somalia and it is illegal.” She is waiting for this day which has to come. The day is coming when every women on the world is free, happy and safe. Waris Dirie’s history attends us through whole paragraphs and lets us see a direct example of feelings and experiences of FGM.