Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey Of A Desert Nomad [Hardcover]

Waris Dirie (Author), Cathleen Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 19, 1998

Waris Dirie leads a double life -- by day, she is an international supermodel and human rights ambassador for the United Nations; by night, she dreams of the simplicity of life in her native Somalia and the family she was forced to leave behind. Desert Flower, her intimate and inspiring memoir, is a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered about the beauty of African life, the chaotic existence of a supermodel, or the joys of new motherhood.

Waris was born into a traditional Somali family, desert nomads who engaged in such ancient and antiquated customs as genital mutilation and arranged marriage. At twelve, she fled an arranged marriage to an old man and traveled alone across the dangerous Somali desert to Mogadishu -- the first leg of an emotional journey that would take her to London as a house servant, around the world as a fashion model, and eventually to America, where she would find peace in motherhood and humanitarian work for the U.N.

Today, as Special Ambassador for the U.N., she travels the world speaking out against the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation, promoting women's reproductive rights, and educating people about the Africa she fled -- but still deeply loves.

Dramatic, humorous, and enormously uplifting, this is a wonderful self-portrait of a courageous woman whose spirit is as breathtaking as her beauty.

Desert Flower will be published simultaneously in eleven languages throughout the world and is currently being produced as a feature film by Rocket Pictures UK.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

By age 6, Waris Dirie was herding her family's sheep and goats, fending off hyenas and wild dogs as the family carved a path through Africa. She was just twice that age when she ran off into the vast furnace of the Somali desert to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man. Traveling for days without food and water, she made her way to Mogadishu and later to London as a servant to her uncle, the Somalian ambassador. There she wrestled with culture shock and got her first taste of the modeling life that eventually brought her into the public eye. Dirie is resilient, having survived drought, hunger, and the ritual female genital mutilation that marks a step toward womanhood among some traditional Moslems but, argue critics, steals or ruins many girls' lives. "As we traveled throughout Somalia," says Dirie, "we met families and I played with their daughters. When we visited them again, the girls were missing. No one spoke the truth about their absence or even spoke of them at all." As a special ambassador to the United Nations, Dirie has spoken out loudly on this subject and championed environmental causes, too. How much of her sometimes breathless story is gospel truth and how much embellished is hard to say. Like Dirie herself, though, the combination is intriguing, powerful, and unique. --Francesca Coltrera

From Publishers Weekly

Joining the current rage for model memoirs (see review above) is Dirie, a native of Somalia, who has for more than a decade stalked the world's catwalks and appeared in numerous glossy magazines. This, however, is no fluff-job dictated into a tape recorder on transatlantic flights, then recomposed by a hired gun back in New York. Rather, it is a striking account of a personal odyssey that began in the Somali desert, where Dirie grew up without shoes, living amid nomadic tribes and tyrannized by patriarchal strictures. As a pubescent girl, Dirie was circumcised?a procedure described here in chilling detail?before escaping an arranged marriage to stay with an aunt in Mogadishu. Landing a job as a house servant in London, Dirie struggled to launch a modeling career while dodging British immigration authorities and the dreadful results of marriages of convenience. At the end of this affecting and at times very entertaining book, Dirie's metamorphosis from desert nomad into jetsetting nomad culminates in a post as a human rights ambassador to the UN, where, these days, Dirie campaigns for the eradication of female circumcision and women's rights around the globe. It's easy to forget that Dirie's memoir is a book about someone whose success has come from posing for the camera. Indeed, it is Dirie's remarkable lack of narcissism or entitlement that makes her so captivating a raconteur. Photos. Editor: Billy Kelly; agent: Christie Fletcher/Carol Mann Agency; author tour. (Sept.) FYI: Foreign rights have sold in 10 countries.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (August 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688158234
• ISBN-13: 978-0688158231
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story of courage--great autobiography, February 26, 2001

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad (Paperback)

Waris Dirie is from Somalia, home of some of the most beautiful women in the world, many of whom become supermodels like the famous Iman and Dirie herself. This book is a story of her desert semi-nomad life, the story of the horrifying practice of Pharonic circumcision of women that she suffered, and Dirie's escape from several oppressive situations ultimately to a better life.

The practice of female circumcision or FGM (female genital multilation) is not well-understood by Europeans and Americans. The practice, though not ordained by the Koran, is common in parts of Islamic Africa. It may have had tribal origins before some of the lands became Islamic. Dirie gives a blunt description of the primitive practice that leads to the death of many girls and to constant pain and suffering for those who survive it.

In addition to the story of FGM, Dirie also tells how she escaped her engagment to a man she didn't know, how she got to London to live with relatives, only to escape virtual enslavement and ended up working at a MacDonalds. From there, fame and success.

This book is written well, in a plain but well-told style. In addition to enlightening people about FGM, it tells a story of great courage.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting., June 15, 2004

By 

A .J. Casper (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad (Paperback)

It naturally just goes to your heart. The language is simple and honest, so you can read the book in a day or two. Her story was just remarkable and the book was well-written. People should be made aware of FGM and its effects. They should know that it exists. I particularly liked the way she ended the book. She says that if the existance of FGM has any meaningful explanation, maybe she would think twice about denouncing it...but this practice has no significant reason to exist what so ever! There were, however, too many "In Africa..." generalizations in the book. FGM is not ubiquitous in Africa, in fact, most Africans don't even know that it's there. It is just concentrated mainly in East African countries like Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Djibouti, and some areas in West Africa like Mali for example. I loved the book. Everyone should read it!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Poignant Autobiography and a Moral Challenge, October 25, 2000

By 

watzizname "watzizname" (Murfreesboro, Tennessee) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad (Paperback)

Waris Dirie tells us the extraordinary story of her life, beginning as a nomad in Africa, her escape on foot thru the desert from the prospect of an arranged marriage, going first to the city where her sister lived, then to England, where she knew not a word of the language, and finally to America. She became an internationally famous model, learned to speak English, got married, divorced, and remarried, and finally became a spokeswoman for the United Nations against female genital mutilation.

The story of her life is fascinating, but the genital mutilation she and her sisters suffered is disgusting. Dirie relates that no man of her native culture would want to marry a woman who had not been mutilated in such a way as to make it impossible for her to feel the intense pleasure of sexual intercourse. Thus mutilated, she supposedly cannot be tempted by other men. Many young girls die from infections contracted from unsanitary instruments used in this barbarous procedure.

Both men and women there are really missing out on the joy they could have, were men to give women the respect they deserve. Such a man may experience orgasm, but he can never experience the far greater joy of knowing that he has given the greatest and most intense pleasure to someone he deeply loves and respects. If I were married to a woman so mutilated, I would feel sorely cheated because I could never give her the pleasure I would want her to have. Like the Texas oilman who married a much younger wife and was warned that she would soon take on other lovers, I would rather own five percent of a gusher than lock, stock, and barrel of a dry hole.

I hope Dirie's husband will always be loving, thoughtful, and kind to her, because after the hell she has been thru, she deserves all the happiness he can give her, and then some. Her story is an inspiration, but at the same time it is a challenge to the rest of us to do what we can to end the horrible practise of female genital mutilation.

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