Profile photo of Waris Dirie. Somali world supermodel was raped at 4 years old and circumcised at 5 years old. Legendary life Waris Dirie (Waris Dirie) was born in the Somali desert in 1965 to a poor nomadic family with 12 children.
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She had an unimaginably miserable childhood. She underwent female circumcision at the age of 5. When she was 13, her father forcibly married Waris to a man in his 60s for five camels. When she was 18, she left her hometown and was forced to work as a maid.
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Introduced by a photographer, she became a popular black model in the 1990s, but she chose to quit when her modeling career was at its peak, just to do the right thing. She cared about her hometown, and she wanted to
Rescue the children who are suffering from the persecution of circumcision.
Click on the picture to go to the next page. Waris Dirie's personal profile photo. The Somali world's supermodel was raped at the age of 4 and circumcised at the age of 5. The legendary life. When Waris was five years old, like all the girls in the community, she accepted
Female genital mutilation (FGM).
She still remembers the feeling of anger: They tried to make me believe that this was all orchestrated by God, and I kept thinking, does God hate me so much?
If he really hates me, then I don't want him.
She was arranged to stay alone in a temporary shelter under a tree while she waited for her wounds to heal.
Many young girls lost their lives due to excessive blood loss or wound infection during this process. Wallis recalled that she was lying on the ground and kept silently saying: God, you must let me live, this is what you owe me!
Click on the picture to go to the next page. Waris Dirie's personal profile photo. The Somali world's supermodel was raped at the age of 4 and circumcised at the age of 5. The legendary life. I have never been the kind of daughter my parents wanted. I am stubborn, willful, and constantly
Question and doubt everything.
When she was 13 years old, her father decided to marry Waris to a 61-year-old man in exchange for five camels.
Faced with her upcoming wedding ceremony, she ran barefoot into the desert without hesitation and ran to a relative's home in Mogadishu.
She said: I know that most local married women endure everything unconditionally. They are very desperate. At that time, I thought, was I born to be abused?
I know very well what I can do with my abilities.
Click on the picture to go to the next page. Waris Dirie's profile photo. Somali world supermodel was raped at 4 years old and circumcised at 5 years old. Legendary life. Waris Dirie's aunt married the Somali ambassador to the UK under her arrangement.
, Wallis was sent to London to work as a maid.
Over the course of a few years, she learned English and found a job at McDonald's, where she was discovered by a photographer.
By the 1990s, Wallis was not only a world-famous model and a cover girl sought after by major fashion magazines, she was also the image spokesperson of Chanel and the sexy Bond girl in the movie "007 Series: Dead by Daylight".
Click on the picture to go to the next page. Waris Dirie's personal profile photo. The Somali world's supermodel was raped at the age of 4 and circumcised at the age of 5. The legendary life of a model. The life of a model should be interesting and glamorous, but Waris Dirie did not.
Keep going.
She said: I always thought these were all nonsense and fake.
I just can't sleep when I think about the fact that there are many girls in my hometown who may be going through that pain.
As if she was filming a fashion shoot, she made a mocking smile: I feel I have an obligation to tell the world that in some areas, in some corners that we can't see, the torture of circumcision still exists.
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It’s not personal, it’s a war that goes unnoticed, it’s against women.
Click on the picture to go to the next page. Waris Dirie's personal profile photo. The Somali world's supermodel was raped at the age of 4 and circumcised at the age of 5. The legendary life of Waris Dirie said that people today are more and more aware of circumcision, but
What really made her a champion for African women's rights in the 1990s was people's indifference.
Her fame brought her the opportunity. In a magazine interview in 1997, she challenged female circumcision that had been practiced for hundreds of years for the first time and told the public about her circumcision process for the first time. Later, she was
Appointed Special Ambassador to the United Nations for the Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Campaign.
In 2002, Wallis established a charity foundation based on her name, which means desert flower in Somali, and officially launched a series of actions against circumcision.
According to statistics from the World Health Organization, more than 140 million women worldwide have undergone circumcision, with 3 million cases occurring every year.
Some of their lower bodies are sewn up, and some of their external genitalia are completely removed. An unsuccessful circumcision can also cause women to become incontinent and be ostracized by the locals.
In 1998, Wallis completed her first autobiographical book "Desert Flower", which quickly became an international bestseller.
In 2009, the movie "Desert Flower" of the same name was released around the world. In the film, Wallis herself was starred by the famous supermodel Liya Kebede.