Leading the Campaign to Eradicate FGM by Raising Worldwide Awareness of FGM as a Violence and Human Rights Issue
Waris Dirie is the first person to draw the world’s attention to FGM as a human rights issue, because of its cruelty. In addition to causing extreme pain, this practice leads to many deaths due to high blood loss or infection. She has been leading anti-FGM campaign to eradicate cruel practice. Through her efforts, people around the world have started to view FGM as violence. The campaign saved millions of girls who were at the risk of the violent practice.
Born into a goat-herding nomad family in Somalia, she underwent female circumcision at the age of 5. In 1997, when her fashion career as a world-class supermodel was at its peak, she revealed her experience with FGM as a representative of all African women who had undergone the procedure and couldn’t tell anyone their story. This brave start led her to become a human rights activist to end the barbaric practice that are thriving in Africa. She was then appointed as a first Special Ambassador to the United Nations for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation in 1997. Since then, she has been putting tireless efforts in anti-FGM Campaign.
As a result of her efforts, 15 African Union member countries ratified the Maputo Protocol, which in Article 5 lists FGM as a harmful practice that must be ended. In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution banning the practice and has set a goal to eliminate FGM by 2030. This innovative milestone saved the lives of millions of girls who were at the risk the violent practice.
Female Genital Mutilation, or female circumcision, is a traditional ritual in which the external female genitalia are cut or removed for non-medical reasons and the operated area is sewn together, leaving a tiny hole. Although this ritual has been practiced for over 3,000 years, it doesn’t have any medical benefits. This barbaric practice is a crime and against humanity, which often causes infertility, problems with urination, high blood loss, infections and in some cases even death.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 200 million girls and women have been affected by FGM, which is prevalent in more than 30 countries, including parts of Africa and the Middle East. Yearly, about 3.5 million and daily about 9,800 girls and women’s lives are threatened by the brutal practice. Also, due to the increase of the immigration rate, countries in Europe, the USA and Asia are being affected by FGM.
In 2002, Waris Dirie established the Desert Flower Foundation, named for the English translation of her first name, to actively promote the eradication of FGM around the world. Her first book, Desert Flower, published in 1997, contains her life and experiences and has been translated into many languages and sold around the world. A major featured film based on her book, also named Desert Flower, was released in 2009. It has been shown in 56 countries around the world, including by international NGOs such as UNHCR and UNICEF, further raising awareness of FGM. These films and books are playing a major role in raising worldwide awareness of FGM and in changing people’s perspective toward FGM.
Al Jazeera, the largest broadcasting company in the Arab world, invited Waris Dirie to be interviewed on journalist Riz Khan’s program—the first TV program in the Arab world to raise the issue of FGM. In the interview she presented the dangers of FGM and asked everyone to help eradicate the practice. This TV program, which was viewed by 200 million people, brought an opportunity for FGM to be handled publicly as a human rights issue in the Arab world. Waris Dirie states, “Communities need to be educated in the fact that FGM is not prescribed by any religion and it is not part of a culture.” There was a time when her bold statements and actions led to her receiving threats. However, she has continued to lead the campaign to eradicate FGM, even at the risk of her life.
Because of her achievements, she received the Oscar Romero Award presented by the Catholic Men’s Movement in 2007, and she also received the Legion of Honor award from the French government.
Healing Hearts and Bodies of Victims of FGM through Reconstructive Surgery
Waris Dirie provides reconstructive surgery and comprehensive cure for victims of FGM, who are physically and psychologically damaged by the brutal practice. In 2013, the Desert Flower Foundation partnered with the Waldfriede Hospital of Berlin to open the first Desert Flower Center, which provides comprehensive treatments for victims of FGM. Currently, the centers operate in Paris, Berlin, Stockholm and Amsterdam with a medical team of 120 doctors, nurses and staff. The centers provide physiological support, reconstructive surgeries, career training, and educational materials.
FGM usually is done at home without any medical device. When a girl or a woman experiences the procedure, there is a high chance of developing an “obstetric fistula,” an abnormal opening between the genital and urinary tracts. Girls and women who are affected by an obstetric fistula can suffer from incontinence of urine or feces, causing various infections, extreme menstrual cramps and obstructed labor, which also can lead to infertility.
When Waris Dirie first opened the Training Center, her goal was to provide educational materials for civil society groups and academic institutions to prepare as many doctors as possible to perform reconstructive surgery. The center have provided education in FGM reconstructive surgery to doctors and obstetricians. So far, medical teams from France, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom have participated in the education and have performed the reconstructive surgery on FGM victims in their own countries.
Providing Fundamental Solutions to the Eradication of FGM through Education and Financial Support
Many countries changed their laws to ban FGM after the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution banning the practice. However, the practice is still being done around the world, even risking victims’ lives. Waris Dirie grasped that the practice is still carried out due to the “financial benefit” to families from selling their daughters at high cost, not because of tradition or culture. Therefore, as a fundamental solution to the issue, she is at the forefront of helping victims to stand independently, by providing basic literacy education and career education.
The Desert Flower Foundation runs a sponsorship program called “Save a Little Desert Flower,” which protects girls in Sierra Leone and Djibouti from FGM by providing funds for education. Also, Waris Dirie started another program called “Education Initiative” to lower the child illiteracy rate. In 2018, she started to build an elementary school in Sierra Leone to raise children’s basic literacy. In addition, she started a pilot project in many corners of Africa, called “Together for African Women,” for women’s education, career training and guaranteed income. She is also working on a project with fair-trade companies in Ethiopia and Kenya that produce scarves and other fair-trade products to provide employment to thousands.
Waris Dirie states, “My goal is to help the women of Africa. I want to see them get stronger, not weaker, and the practice of FGM simply weakens them physically and emotionally. Since women are the backbone of Africa, and they do most of the work, I like to imagine how much they could accomplish if they weren’t butchered as children and left to function maimed for the rest of their lives.” Waris Dirie is calling out passionately that eradicating FGM can empower and expand the rights of women and transform Africa.
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