Given her popular status as a Fashion Model, Waris Dirie has a good shot at winning the campaign against female genital mutilation. Liban interviews Waris on her stumbling blocks, campaign and immense ability to defy all odds.

Could there be anything more chilling to a woman than to be described as a ‘former beauty’? The implication is that something catastrophic, unspeakable has happened. It is scary enough to make one feel relieved that they were never such a ‘looker’ in the first place. Granted Dirie doesn’t make an actual living from her looks but we cannot stop but stare at her beauty. This is one lady, now a UN advocate for the abolition of female genital mutilation (FGM), is a far cry from being a ‘former’ or ‘Ex’ anything. She is not about to loose her crown.
Waris Dirie (whose name means desert flower), was one of twelve children born into a traditional family of tribal desert nomads in East Africa. She remembers her early childhood as carefree – running with her brothers and racing camels. Waris left her native Somalia at the age of 13 where she travelled to London and worked as a maid for the Somali ambassador until his family returned home. Penniless, and with little English, she started working as a cleaner in McDonald’s, where she was famously discovered by British photographer Terence Donovan and from here her career as a model began. “The modelling business is a very hard one, there are a few girls that climb very high and stay there. You need hard discipline.” Her next book “A letter to my mother” will venture deeply into this harsh modelling world. Her first job was for a Pirelli calendar shoot – with Terence Donovan – along with a young unknown girl from Streatham called Naomi Campbell
Waris Dirie is a remarkable woman whose spirit is as breathtaking as her beauty. Not only was she an internationally renowned model, she was the face of Revlon skin-care products, appeared in “The living Daylights,” a 1987 James Bond film, modelled in Channel perfume ads and appeared on numerous magazine covers.
Although Waris Dirie fled her homeland, she never forgot the country and culture that moulded her. The very world that nearly destroyed her also gave her the tools to survive. She traces the roots of her courage, resilience and humour back to her motherland, and most particularly to her mother. ‘I wanted to return to the place where I was born and see it with new eyes. I had no idea where my family was in Somalia. At first it seemed impossible - almost as impossible as a camel girl becoming a fashion model ‘ her book Desert Dawn is the story of that return. When asked about her opinion in the current situation in Somalia, she said “I am not a politician, but I pray every day for the children in Somalia. I pray for those who still are fighting that love and peace will reach their hearts to stop this war”.