ITALY: Fashion models Waris Dirie and Liya Kebede talk about female genital mutilation in Dirie's true life story "Desert Flower"

Record ID: 241896

  • Title: ITALY: Fashion models Waris Dirie and Liya Kebede talk about female genital mutilation in Dirie's true life story "Desert Flower"
  • Date: 7th September 2009
  • Summary: VENICE LIDO, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 4, 2009) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIYA KEDEBE, SAYING: "I have a little daughter too so you think about that. So it's difficult, it's a very difficult thing. But at the same time is what we have to realise is a lot of the times is why these things happen is because women in those places don't have a choice. The only choice they have is to get married that's the only way out. So the mother who's doing this to their daughter is trying to give her a better life because there's no other option for her. So I think concentrating on giving education to these girls and if these girls knew they knew there were other options in life, could live independent and earn their own money, then they would realise that marriage is not the only way out."
  • Embargoed: 22nd September 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVAEB63PMTF69MLB77DXEE4NWAKE
  • Story Text: Waris Dirie, the former fashion model, wrote about her saga of undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) as a child growing up in Somalia in the best-selling novel "Desert Flower".
    The book has now been made into a movie which showed at the Venice Film Festival.
    Dirie was amongst the first women to speak out about the forced circumcision of girls in the predominantly Islamic nation where the ritual continued to take place today. She knew she would put herself in the firing line for speaking out but said she still felt compelled to voice her opinion.
    The novel and film follows her epic journey from the Somalian desert, as one of 12 children, to the runways of the world's top designers, all the while keeping the secret of FGM hidden from her booking agents, photographers and managers.
    During a run-of-the-mill interview with a journalist about making the transition from farm girl to top model, Dirie instead decided to confess all about her experience.
    As a three-year-old, Dirie was held down by her mother while a specialised woman performed the "cut" with a dull razor and afterwards sewed up the hole with a coarse thread, with only a tiny hole through which to urinate. Dirie become infected a number of times and underwent multiple surgeries to correct the problem in her adult life.
    Still, to this day, she said nothing is being done to stop the problem.
    "It's a huge, voiceless problem, brutal bullshit. So the world is sitting there watching everything and watching me run around like a -- It's just really incredibly unfair and shameful and shocking and I don't understand why the world don't do something, those who call themselves a politician. Whatever they called themselves, they don't do anything, they don't do their job, what they're supposed to do," she told Reuters Television.
    Dirie is played by supermodel Liya Kedebe, her first lead role after playing small parts in The Good Shepherd and Lord of War.
    "I have a little daughter too so you think about that. So it's difficult, it's a very difficult thing. But at the same time is what we have to realise is a lot of the times is why these things happen is because women in those places don't have a choice. The only choice they have is to get married that's the only way out. So the mother who's doing this to their daughter is trying to give her a better life because there's no other option for her. So I think concentrating on giving education to these girls and if these girls knew they knew there were other options in life, could live independent and earn their own money, then they would realise that marriage is not the only way out," she said.
    Director Sherry Hormann brought cast and crew to film in Djibouti and said she encountered local people who were both supportive and hostile to her project.
    "We had to face a lot of resistance because just imagine, a bunch of white people come into your country and make them believe that we know what is better for them. This always creates conflicts so it was a very subtle way of talking to the government and getting general permission. Then it was going into the slums and talk to them and generally try to create some confidence."
    "Desert Flower" will show next in Germany on September 24.
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