Waris Dirie is a supermodel who was born and raised in the Somalian desert and is a strong advocate against Female Circumcision. This is her story according to her foundation website and her interview on the bbc.
I was born in 1965 as daughter of a nomad family in the region of Gallacaio in the Somalian dersert near the border to Ethiopia. When I was five I suffered the unhuman procedure of genital mutilation. My mother took me to a gypsy woman, who circumcized me. Held by my mother and sitting on a rock, the gypsy woman cut the clitoris as well as the labia minora and the labia majora with an old razor blade, and then she sewed the wound coarsly, leaving only a tiny hole to urinate. All that happens without local anaethetic and for the only purpose to be able to lead girls “purely” into marriage. Without cirumcision the chances of marriage are not very high, and the family would have to feed another eater. Many girls do not survive this horrible ritual. My wound got infected as well, I was suffering agonies.
The agony she suffered was in part what spurred her to leave the Somali desert community she had grown up in, and escape to London, where she was "discovered" and began modeling.
"Every day I still struggle to understand why this has happened to me - this cruel and terrible thing for which there is no reason or explanation - whatever they tell you about religion or purity. I can't tell you how angry I feel, how furious it makes me."
It should make us all furious. When people approach Waris and congratualte her on her work, her response is that "it isn't just [her] work, this should be everybody's work." I agree... and that's why I'm posting this blog and hoping someone reads it. Everyone needs to know so this disgusting and horrifying practice can be stopped.
Again, if you wish to know more about this subject, please go here or here, or if you wish to support those who are trying to globaly put a stop to FGM, please go here, here, or here.
Labels: FGM, health, Somalia, violence
