Waris Dirie

[BaroqueRockstar]

myhero.com

 

[BaroqueRockstar]

www.lysistrataproject.org

members.shaw.ca

 

[BaroqueRockstar]

nyssaneala.blogspot.com/

facecampaign.org

waris dirie foundation

www.buecher4um.de/AutorWD.htm

www.kathieleegifford.com

 

[BaroqueRockstar]

from fmd

 

[jjbunny79]

oh, she is a very respectful personful

 

[Mr-Dale]

She has gone missing

'Desert Flower' Waris Dirie smiles after receiving the 'Prix des Generations' award of the World Demographic Association, on the last day of the 3rd World Ageing & Generations Congress in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in this Saturday, Sept. 8, 2007, file photo. Dirie, a former model turned women's rights campaigner, has gone missing in Brussels, her manager Walter Lutschinger said Friday, March 7, 2008.(

Yahoo News

 

[simplylovely]

^ She is Flawless! I pray she's safe and is able to call a family member to them she's alright. That is so odd how she's gone missing right after Katoucha Niane's passing!

 

[Tinsley V]

She's been found!

Missing ex-model Waris Dirie found in Brussels

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Waris Dirie, the Somali-born supermodel and former James Bond girl who launched a worldwide campaign against female genital mutilation, has been found by police in central Brussels three days after she disappeared, says Estelle Arpigny, spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office.
Dirie was found Friday hours after police announced a nationwide search for Dirie, who was last seen getting into a cab after a mix-up over a hotel in the early hours of Wednesday.

Arpigny said Dirie was being questioned by police about the disappearance and appeared to be in good health.

Dirie had not been seen since the early hours of Wednesday morning when police saw her getting into a taxi after a mix-up over a hotel room, Walter Lutschinger said in a telephone interview.

Somali-born Dirie gained international fame as a model posing in Chanel ads and acting in a James Bond film before launching her campaign against female genital mutilation 1996.

News of Dirie's disappearance comes a week after French police said they had found the body of another former model of African origin who had campaigned against female genital mutilation. Guinean-born Katoucha Niane was discovered floating in the River Seine in Paris.

The French police said an autopsy showed no signs of foul play, raising the possibility that she may have fallen accidentally into the river.

Altercation at hotel
Belgian police launched an official missing persons appeal for Dirie, asking the public for information.

The police, who gave her name as Waris Dahir Jones, said the 43-year-old was last seen outside a luxury hotel in downtown Brussels. They said she was wearing brown pants, a violet hat and a black-and-white poncho-style jacket. They said they were also looking for the taxi driver who took her from the area between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.

Dirie, who now lives in Vienna, was due to speak to two conferences on women's rights organized by the European Union in Brussels this week, including one Thursday attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Lutschinger said Dirie had been involved in an altercation in a hotel reception area after a taxi driver took her to the wrong branch of the Sofitel hotel chain after a visit to a night club. The police were called and drove Dirie around Brussels looking for the correct hotel because she had she apparently forgotten where she was staying.

At one hotel, while staff and police were checking for her name on a computer, Lutschinger said police told him Dirie walked out and climbed into a taxi that drove away. He said hotel staff told him Dirie had said she was going to buy cigarettes.

EU officials said they had expressed concern when she did not show up Thursday at the conference and had been in touch with the police, but had not had any news of Dirie's whereabouts.

Shocked the world
Dirie is an Austrian citizen. Dirie was due to travel to the Netherlands to receive an award for her campaigning Friday in the town of Kerkrade.

Dirie's description of how she had to endure having her genitals sliced off with a dirty razor blade without anesthesia, and then stitched together, shocked a world that knew her from glossy fashion magazine covers, Chanel perfume ads and her role in "The Living Daylights," a 1987 James Bond film.

She chronicled her own experience in "Desert Flower" and three sequels, "Desert Dawn," "Desert Children" and "Nomad's Daughter." She served as a U.N. goodwill ambassador to fight the practice.

"There are millions of children — young, hopeless, desperate — who need help, a voice, somebody, somewhere," she told The Associated Press in a 2005 interview.

source|msnbc.com

 

[simplylovely]

^ Was just about to post that. So happy she's okay!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/08/belgium.model.ap/index.html

 

[angel222]

Waris Dirie: My r*pe Nightmare

BRUSSELS (EUX.TV) -- Waris Dirie, the former model who went missing in Brussels last week, has claimed that Belgian police have treated her like a "prostitute" when she sought help.
After returning home to Vienna, Dirie says that during her three-day ordeal in Brussels, she was abducted by a taxi driver who attempted to r*pe her, after Belgian police refused to help her find her hotel last Tuesday night.
"I feel very sad, truly deeply sadly, for any woman who comes to this country as an immigrant," Dirie said in her video message, "because I know how she'd be treated. This is shameful."
The video also shows a doctor confirming that Dirie suffered bruises from her fight with the taxi driver who attempted to r*pe her. She said her kickbox training had helped keep her assailant at bay. The video was recorded in an Austrian hospital.


Watch Dirie discuss her ordeal in this video. The video was made available by her agent in Austria:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfK3KnQVerk

 

[simplylovely]

I admire Waris Dirie so much! She is such a strong role model figure for me. This is beyond sad, but not really surprising. Women get treated awful in the world, but even worse and particular parts of the globe. That is why it is very important to know what your getting into when travelling to different countries, and always have people with you for safety! I'm glad she knew how to defend herself and I hope women learn lessons from her ordeals which is to always remain strong and fight against the injustices made against women! Makes me want to fight even harder so that my daughter (s) won't have to be treated like trash! I teach them that they are Queens and nothing less and any man who treats a woman like a slave or animal doesn't deserve the title of a man.

 

[sepia]

Wow, I'm glad she was able to defend herself!

 

[gia0202]

omigoodness!! does this have something to do with the oversexualization of darker women?

 

[OMIFAN9]

I was very relieved to find out that this wasn't another Katoucha case. But still its very sad what happened to her,and surely other women. I always knew she was a brave woman and this proves it. Not only is she brave but she's a real beauty.
1991 for L'Oreal scanned by me. Photo Source:soulstyle

 

[Macmaverick]

Hi all,

First of all, let me make this clear: I really do admire everybody who defends equal rights. No matter if they deal with gender, colour of skin, religion ... whatever. This also counts for what Waris Dirie does.

But I don't tend to believe everything she says in this TV interview. First of all, do you know she is no longer UN special ambassador since 2003? If so, then why does she sign papers and books with that title? The unofficial reason being that she has an alcohol problem...

Then, if the Brussels police did not treat her correctly, then why after being found and before leaving Belgium did she have pictures taken on which she appears smiling with the Brussels chief of police?

As a matter of fact, in her first statement she thanked the police for being found after a couple of nights wandering through the streets of Brussels and sleeping in hotel lobbies.

And above all it is rumoured that it not her first "fade-out". She disappeared in London and Munich before.

Conclusion? I was not an eye-witness, but I don't want to accept her version uncritically. But if it actually was really true, then why does she not press charges against the Brussels Police? I can asure you that racism is treated as a serious offence here in Belgium.

I do wish her a lot of success in the battle she is fighting for, but not at the costs of someone else ('s reputation).

Mav

 

[OMIFAN9]

^Well I don't go home with her so I'm not going to trash her. And it is quite likely she was just scared as hell & she didn't want to rock the boat by speaking out just yet. I mean if I was lost I'd still want to be found & be happy/relieved about it...possibly even if the road was rocky. People get treated like crap and this story is shedding some light on it...whether it happened in her case or not...its still happening!

 

[Cinthia]

I hate that the first thought of people is questionning the possible r*pe victim instead of the alleged r*pist. we do not know everything of the case . it is tasteless to look for reason to blame someone who maybe is a victim.

i also hate that when say they are victim of racism people say oh but our society condem racism you cannot be a victim and find excuses for the alleged racist.

i'm not speaking about you but in general that is what i experienced.
people who appropriate the voice of the victim and silence them. "you are not a victim" "i don't trust you" "i prefer to trust the alleged r*pist , the alleged r*pist" racism and r*pe happen only in theory.

 

[simplylovely]

I hate that the first thought of people is questionning the possible r*pe victim instead of the alleged r*pist. we do not know everything of the case . it is tasteless to look for reason to blame someone who maybe is a victim.

i also hate that when say they are victim of racism people say oh but our society condem racism you cannot be a victim and find excuses for the alleged racist.

i'm not speaking about you but in general that is what i experienced.
people who appropriate the voice of the victim and silence them. "you are not a victim" "i don't trust you" "i prefer to trust the alleged r*pist , the alleged r*pist" racism and r*pe happen only in theory.

I totally agree! Or because traditional men don't agree with a woman's profession so she's lying. Or a woman doesn't report a r*pe and/or abuse soon enough so she must be lying. Policemen, especially males, are so quick to brush women off without investigating anything or doing using very little effort to find the alleged r*pist. It really is sickening to think about it. I'm sure if it were their mother, daughter or wife they would do everything in their power to find out who it was. Or maybe not, which is even more pathetic imo. Women really do have to stick together and solve this problem on their own and fight against injustices like these because very few men think of us as important.

 

[angel222]

^ Something very strange has happened I believe she was kidnapped and almost raped and escaped. I also believe she was dismissed by police and in a drunken state hopped into a taxi opening the gates of Hell.

 

[simplylovely]

^ Something very strange has happened I believe she was kidnapped and almost raped and escaped. I also believe she was dismissed by police and in a drunken state hopped into a taxi opening the gates of Hell.

How in the world did you come up with That conclusion? I believe every word from Waris's mouth.