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.
Book club will be held at Missy's house, July 31, at 8PM. Let mw know if you have any questions. Can't wait to see you all!
