“When I was a child I said I don't want to be a woman. Why?! Because it's too painful to be a woman!”
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Waris Dirie
Waris Dirie is a Somali model, author, actress and human rights activist in the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM). From 1997 to 2003, she was a UN special ambassador against FGM. In 2002 she founded her own organization in Vienna, the Desert Flower Foundation. She has won numerous awards recognizing her work on eradicating FGM, including the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (2007).
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entertainment · Somali model, author, actress, and activist (born 1965) · model · novelist · writer · autobiographer · women's rights activist · film actor · goodwill ambassador · actor · humanitarian · screenwriter · also Waris Dirie, Dirie
Born 21 October 1965 · Q78644
35 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 3 entries
Public attention spiked: 3,538 Wikipedia readers in one day, 9× the usual 393, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 2,974 Wikipedia readers in one day, 7.6× the usual 393, with 0 article edits.
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2023· 1 entry
BBC: Waris Dirie: My mother said ‘forgive me’ for my FGM
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2019· 2 entries
Daily Front Row: Waris Dirie, Coco de Mer, and Rankin Are Fighting for Women’s Rights
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Yahoo: Model turned activist Waris Dirie says world is ignoring the crime of FGM
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2017· 1 entry
The Centre Fleur du Desert opened with the Fondation Fleur du Desert in the women's shelter at the Hôpital Delafontaine in Paris Saint-Denis
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2016· 1 entry
Dirie and the team of the Desert Flower Foundation decided to make the topic "Education in Africa" the focus of their work
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2015· 3 entries
Cosmopolitan: Waris Dirie: "Never give up. FGM has to be eradicated, and it will be eradicated."
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Yahoo: Ex-supermodel Waris Dirie says FGM can end in her lifetime - TRFN
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In cooperation with the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm
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2014· 2 entries
The sponsorship programme "Save A Little Desert Flower" was launched
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The Desert Flower Surgical Training Center for surgeons, gynaecologists, urologists and nursing staff was established in Amsterdam together with the Desert Flower Foundation BENELUX
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2013· 1 entry
BBC: Waris Dirie; Ada Lovelace Day
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2011· 1 entry
A collaboration with the Hamburg agency Jung von Matt and the laundry label Mey
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2010· 2 entries
Campaigned with "Stop FGM Now" in collaboration with the Berlin agency Heymann Brandt de Gelmini
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Dirie was appointed Ambassador of Peace and Security in Africa by the African Union
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2009· 2 entries
Since 2009 Dirie has lived in Gdańsk, Poland.
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Desert Flower, a feature-length film based on Waris' book Desert Flower was released, with the Ethiopian supermodel Liya Kebede playing her
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2007· 2 entries
“This is my most personal book. There are simply wounds that don”
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The Arab channel Al Jazeera invited Waris Dirie to the popular talk show by Riz Khan
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2006· 1 entry
Addressed the assembled ministers of all EU Member States in Brussels
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2005· 1 entry
“Jeżeli zaczniesz się przejmować porażkami, rozpadniesz się na kawałki.”
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2004· 1 entry
Received the World Social Award by Mikhail Gorbachev at the Women's World Award Gala in Hamburg, Germany
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2002· 2 entries
Dirie founded the Desert Flower Foundation in Vienna, an organisation whose goal is to eradicate female genital mutilation worldwide
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Founded her own organization in Vienna, the Desert Flower Foundation
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1999· 1 entry
Awarded German Africa Prize (1999).
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1998· 1 entry
Dirie coauthored her first book along with nonfiction author Cathleen Miller: Desert Flower, an autobiography that went on to become an international bestseller
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1997· 3 entries
At the height of her modeling career, Dirie spoke for the first time with Laura Ziv of the women's magazine Marie Claire about the FGM that she had undergone as a child, at the age of five along with her two sisters
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At the height of her modeling career, Dirie spoke publicly for the first time with the women's magazine Marie Claire about the FGM that she had undergone as a child, and would become a UN special ambassador against FGM t
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Career landmark: UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador (1997–2003).
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1995· 1 entry
By a BBC documentary entitled A Nomad in New York about her modeling career
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1987· 2 entries
Dirie played a minor role in the James Bond film The Living Daylights
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Together with the then still unknown model Naomi Campbell for the title of the Pirelli Calendar
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1965· 1 entry
Born 1965-10-21.
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