famousblackGIRLS // lifeisalolercoaster: This woman, is absolutely...

lifeisalolercoaster:

This woman, is absolutely amazing. I complain about how my life is shit and then I see stories like this and realise how petty the things I am complaining about are. I complain about being hungry, having too much uni work, heartbreak and fighting with my parents. But stories like Waris Dirie really remind me of the fact that I really don’t have it bad.
Waris Dirie was born in 1965 into a nomad family living in the region of Gallcaio, in the Somali desert near the border to Ethiopia. At the tender age of five, she underwent the inhuman procedure of genital mutilation. This horrible tradition is still practiced worldwide today. According to estimations of the United Nations, more than 8 000 girls become victims of this cruel crime every day.
It is also known as female circumcision and is the process of removing the clitoris, outer lips and inner lips of the vagina and is done for completely non-medical reasons and usually is done without anesthetic or any form of pain-killers. After the removal of almost all the female genitalia, the hole is sewn up leaving a tiny hole where the female can pee (painfully). It remains that way until the girl is married off and on her wedding night, the husband takes a knife to remove the stitching and painfully forces himself into the wound.
All of this occurs because the vagina is seen as ‘dirty’ and therefore must be removed. If a girl does did not undergo this process she could not be married, was outcast from her village and was classified in the same category as a ‘whore’.
At the age of 13 Waris fled from a forced marriage to a man, who could have been her grandfather in age. After an adventurous escape she arrived in London (completely alone) and worked there as a housemaid and at McDonald’s.
She was discovered by the British top photographer Terence Donovan as a model at the age of 18 and became an international celebrity.
After becoming famous, Waris let the world know of this problem. Before Waris spoke up, the ‘tradition’ went unchecked in many countries and was still performed by certain areas of Africa and by migrants in Europe and America.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, appointed her as UN Special Ambassador for the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. She travelled the world for the UN, participated in conferences, met with presidents, Nobel Prize winners and movie stars and collects enormous funds for the UN.
In 2002 she founded her own foundation, named Waris Dirie Foundation, based in Vienna/Austria, to support her work as a campaigner against FGM. In 2010, the Foundation was re-named “Desert Flower Foundation” to reflect the broader approach to addressing female genital mutilation though economic projects in Africa.
Because this amazing woman, Waris Dirie spoke up and fought for her rights as a woman, many countries have now declared female circumcision illegal. Even still, like was stated before, ‘more than 8 000 girls become victims of this cruel crime every day’.
Source: http://www.desertflowerfoundation.org/en/about-waris-dirie/

This woman, is absolutely amazing. I complain about how my life is shit and then I see stories like this and realise how petty the things I am complaining about are. I complain about being hungry, having too much uni work, heartbreak and fighting with my parents. But stories like Waris Dirie really remind me of the fact that I really don’t have it bad.

Waris Dirie was born in 1965 into a nomad family living in the region of Gallcaio, in the Somali desert near the border to Ethiopia. At the tender age of five, she underwent the inhuman procedure of genital mutilation. This horrible tradition is still practiced worldwide today. According to estimations of the United Nations, more than 8 000 girls become victims of this cruel crime every day.

It is also known as female circumcision and is the process of removing the clitoris, outer lips and inner lips of the vagina and is done for completely non-medical reasons and usually is done without anesthetic or any form of pain-killers. After the removal of almost all the female genitalia, the hole is sewn up leaving a tiny hole where the female can pee (painfully). It remains that way until the girl is married off and on her wedding night, the husband takes a knife to remove the stitching and painfully forces himself into the wound.

All of this occurs because the vagina is seen as ‘dirty’ and therefore must be removed. If a girl does did not undergo this process she could not be married, was outcast from her village and was classified in the same category as a ‘whore’.

At the age of 13 Waris fled from a forced marriage to a man, who could have been her grandfather in age. After an adventurous escape she arrived in London (completely alone) and worked there as a housemaid and at McDonald’s.

She was discovered by the British top photographer Terence Donovan as a model at the age of 18 and became an international celebrity.

After becoming famous, Waris let the world know of this problem. Before Waris spoke up, the ‘tradition’ went unchecked in many countries and was still performed by certain areas of Africa and by migrants in Europe and America.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, appointed her as UN Special Ambassador for the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. She travelled the world for the UN, participated in conferences, met with presidents, Nobel Prize winners and movie stars and collects enormous funds for the UN.

In 2002 she founded her own foundation, named Waris Dirie Foundation, based in Vienna/Austria, to support her work as a campaigner against FGM. In 2010, the Foundation was re-named “Desert Flower Foundation” to reflect the broader approach to addressing female genital mutilation though economic projects in Africa.

Because this amazing woman, Waris Dirie spoke up and fought for her rights as a woman, many countries have now declared female circumcision illegal. Even still, like was stated before, ‘more than 8 000 girls become victims of this cruel crime every day’.

Source: http://www.desertflowerfoundation.org/en/about-waris-dirie/