The flower of the desert

Desert Flower – The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad, ”by Waris Dirie and Cathleen Miller, Meteor Publishing Press, 2016
Desert Flower ”is the true story of Waris Dirie, a famous British model of Somali descent. A beautiful woman who broke all the patterns and customs of the culture in which she lived her childhood, in her nomadic family through the Somali desert. Forced to marry at the age of 13, the brave Wirie ran away from home, crossing the desert alone, without supplies or help, to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, and from there to London, as a maid in the house of an ambassador. Her odyssey – from the child of the desert to the catwalk model and the spokesperson for African women’s rights – is a memorial of female resistance that you rarely find. An exceptional artistic sublimation of extreme suffering and humiliation.

You can only admire her, bow to her and be grateful for the corner of the world where you were born and live.

She later became a special ambassador to the UN, in which she campaigned with passion and conviction for human rights, especially for women, considered to be of lower rank. She called for the elimination of female genital mutilation, a Muslim tradition of extraordinary cruelty that she describes in the book. She later founded the Desert Flower Foundation, which promotes women’s rights in Africa.
All the events presented are authentic, based on her memories. The book was screened in 2009.