Waris Dirie

Born 1965, Waris Dirie is a Somali model who is becoming famous mainly as a human rights activist, campaigning against female circumcision. Waris Dirie's profile begins with horrific events. She is born into a nomadic Somali family and is brutally circumcised without anesthesia as an infant. At the age of 13, she is supposed to marry an older man and then flees across the desert to her sister in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. In 1981, she comes to London, where her uncle works in the Somali embassy. There she works first as a maid and later as a cleaner at McDonald's, where she is discovered by the photographer Terence Donovan. He photographed her in 1987 together with Naomi Campbell for the famous "Pirelli" calendar. In the same year she made an appearance in the "James Bond" film "The Touch of Death". In the years that followed, Waris Dirie worked as a successful model and appeared in campaigns for "Levi's," "Revlon," "L'Oréal" and "Chanel." She appears on the cover of "Vogue" and walks on catwalks in Paris, Milan and New York. In 1997, Waris Dirie speaks about her circumcision for the first time in an interview and experiences worldwide reactions. The model then becomes a UN special ambassador against female genital mutilation. In 1998, Waris Dirie published her first biography, "Desert Flower," which became an international bestseller. The model receives countless awards for her political commitment. In 2005 Dirie receives Austrian citizenship. In 2008, her book "Desert Flower" is made into a film starring Ethiopian model Liya Kebede. In July 2013, Waris Dirie receives the "Dehler - Prize for the Fight against Circumcision".