Style: May 04, 2017
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18 STYLE | report<br />
6<br />
WARIS DIRIE<br />
In 1970, when she was five years old, Waris Dirie was a victim<br />
of female genital mutilation in her home of Somalia. At 13, her<br />
parents arranged for her to marry a man in his sixties.<br />
To escape this life, Waris ran away to London. Working<br />
as a maid and for McDonald’s, she was discovered by a<br />
photographer and became a successful model. Waris even<br />
appeared in the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights.<br />
In 1997, Waris retired from modelling to work as a UN<br />
Special Ambassador. Having founded the organisation Desert<br />
Flower, she devotes her time to combating female genital<br />
mutilation around the world.<br />
As the mother of four children, she told Harper’s Bazaar<br />
that female genital mutilation isn’t just a women’s issue: “Every<br />
education begins with Mama. We have to rethink what we<br />
teach our sons. That’s the most important thing.”
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