In Conversation With Waris Dirie
Waris Dirie Foundantion
S
he's been the face of Revlon and a fashion model, but Waris Dirie's most important work is the face she brought to Female Gender Mutilation (FGM). Every year 3 million girls, in African and Muslim countries and 28 countries around the wold, have female circumcision performed on them. Born in Somalia, Dirie was five when she endured the practice of having part of the genital sliced off and then sewned up. Critics say the practice is to kill female desire, and call it torture and child abuse, but in African and Muslim countries it is cloaked in cultural traditions.
Using her fame as a model, Dirie brought widespead attention to FGM when she appeared on Oprah and other media and through her best-selling book Desert Children. She's been a special UN Ambassador, and, today, runs the Waris Dirie Foundation to put a stop to Female Gender Mutilation. She took time out from promoting her new book, Letters to my Mother, to answer some of my questions.
D. Prince: You said "It's got to be kept in the newspapers, it's got to be talked about - and that's the way people can help and to know what's going on. Because mostly they don't know what's going on. Most of the world doesn't know it's going on, and it happens." How ignorant is most of the world about FGM?
Waris Dirie: FGM is a topic which is so horrifying that most of the people just cannot handle it. It is easier to ignore this torture of little innocent girls than to face it. But I´m deeply convinced that information and education are our strongest weapons to fight this madness.
Last year November, a Ethiopian man in the U.S. was given a 10 year prison term for aggravated battery and cruelty for circumsizing his young daughter. So this practice isn't only happening in Africa and muslim countries as people who immigrate tend to keep their customs, and so it's everybody's business, don't you agree?
Yes, you are right on. During the research for my book "Desert Children“, which deals exactly with that topic - FGM and migration in Europe - the huge number of girls who become mutilated in Europe or are sent back home for the mutilation, although they live in Europe and are supposed to stay here, really shocked me. In the US it is exactly the same situation.
I read an article where a woman called you her hero because, although a lot of things happen to people, most of us don't put ourselves and our stories out there, why did you decide to give FGM a voice?
That was no clear decision but something like a coincidence of circumstances. When I became famous as a model I always thought about taking advantage of this attention to tell the world about the tragedy a lot of women in Africa and all over the world have to face: the mutilation of their genitals. When I was interviewed by a magazine, I felt that the time has come. I didn´t expect the reactions to that interview to be so overwhelming. It really frightened me because I didn´t know where it would lead me. After the interview my mutilation was a public matter and I didn´t know if I should be proud of being the first woman who addressed that - because I was sure that this could save some girls from undergoing FGM, or not. Not because I was a successful model in these days and from that day on I was often reduced to being a victim of barbaric traditions. But after thinking about it for a while I was strongly impacted by the idea of saving some girls from being mutilated and took that possibility as a great challenge in my life. So I decided to write down my personal history.
Thorugh your work and The Waris Dirie Foundation, you hear the stories of a lot of women. What do they tell you about the damage to their body and spirt?
Most of the time when a woman, who is affected by FGM tells me her story, I feel like it´s my very own story. Many girls do not know that there is something wrong with them, as long as they stay at home. When they come to Europe, they start to realize that it is not normal at all having to face all the effects of FGM, the everyday pain, the fear of getting the period, which is really hurting like hell. Most of the women I talked to live with severe depressions as well. It is hard to face that you are mutilated, not „circumcised“ as the euphemists would like to call it.
How do we change the thinking that it is a "cultural practice akin to countries over there and we shouldn't interfere"?
I believe that everyone, who comes to face the problem FGM, should show his solidarity and fight against this humiliation. FGM should not be handled as a question of culture or tradition, but as a human rights violation concerning our children. We need international solidarity and everyone who believes in human rights should help us to campaign against it.
You said, "I felt not complete with myself as a woman. Some days I felt so powerless." How has it been trying to reclaim your power and heal your spirit?
It turned into another problem: Sometimes I've got the feeling that I'm somewhere in the middle of an endless fight. Even worse as I'm not famous for my patience. When I started to fight against FGM, I was sure that the international solidarity will help me to erase that torture within some years. I was young, so I didn't expect that it will maybe take my whole life and even longer until it is eliminated. I was also depressed sometimes when I realized that. But now I know that we already saved some girls and I'm satisfied about every single girl that is not affected by FGM because of our work. And we will succeed in abolishing FGM.
As a result of the man's conviction, Georgia passed a law making female circumcision a crime. Last November, there was an Egyptian conference of Muslim scholars to put an end to gender mutulation, do you think if the powers that be took a no nonsense approach to the issue, that those who believe it is part of their culture will come to see the practice as most of the world sees it?
It took me long time to understand why it is so hard for affected women to refuse to have their daughters mutilated. FGM is in our societies rooted in our traditions. When a woman starts to think about it and comes to the conclusion that it has only negative effects on her, she begins to blame her own mother why she let her become mutilated. And that is never easy: To blame somebody you love. Everybody knows that it is our biggest wish that we are protected and guided through live by our parents. To refuse to carry on with this tradition means to state that your own parents did something wrong. Although they did not do it in order to hurt you, but with the loving care of parents. When you talk to any psychologist you will hear that it is quite normal that victims try to protect the committers. And again: I blame the lack of education for it.
How do we change traditions of a culture - how do we educate the victims as well as the perpetrations where this practice is all wrapped up in the staunch beliefs and customs of a people?
Through communication and education. We need more schools in Africa and we need more money for the buildings and the teachers. Education creates self confidence - and self confidence teaches us the ability to say NO. No, I will not let my daughter become mutilated. I think that this is the way to go.
Not to sound ignorant, but when you are brought up with something as part of the cultural norm, how do you know that an atrocity has been committed against your body and spirit?
Like I said before, it is really hard to face this. Most of the affected women prefer to believe that FGM is necessary, that living with this mutilation is absolutely "normal". It takes a lot of power to recognize that it is absolutely not normal, but a kind of torture.
How early on did you know that you had been violated? I ask this because if most women don'trealize that this practice is barbaric, then how do we get them to stand up from themselves?
I'm not sure when exactly I realized it. Maybe at the beginning of my modelling years, I was aware that the other girls were not cut and sewed up between their legs. Although I managed that nobody ever saw my mutilation, I was spying on the other girls. When I spoke to a colleague of mine, I was sure that I was not normal in any way.
Of the 15 goals on your website, two are for affected women to be "treated with sensitivity and respect is for women, if they so choose and to have access to surgery to repair the physical as well as emotional affects of FGM." Do you think enough is being done to educate health workers the world over?
No, there is definitely not enough support for affected women. I was really shocked during my researches for “Desert Children" to see how women are treated e.g. by medical workers. We need more information about FGM for the specific professionals, as e.g. for teachers, social and medical workers. We also need to research the psychological effects of FGM, there are simply no studies facing that problem. When we succeed in raising international awareness we also need to take the next step: FGM needs to be a reason for asylum all over the world.
How can people support your efforts to put an end to FGM?
The American society should – like the European one – start becoming aware of FGM. So it could help a lot when people in the US start talking about it – also with their politicians, their doctors and everybody else. We need clear laws and we need to have them executed. That are clear goals we need to fight for united. We also need worldwide solidarity with affected women, we need to inform and educate ourselves and our children and we need to find new ways of spreading the information in countries, where it is practised. We need to break the taboo, we need to help the people to talk about FGM in their communities. And we need the help of any religious leaders: With five words: “It is against our religion” – they can move people to think about what they do to their daughters. In my recent campaign we try to inform Europeans about this practise – in order to make it possible that FGM becomes a reason for asylum and that affected women here in Europe have access to social and medical services. If you want to support us, please go ahead and sign my manifesto at: http://www.waris-dirie-foundation.com/manifest.htm
Besides, having this happen to you, what fuels your passion and purpose to keep this in the public eye?
For me FGM is a cynical form of child abuse. And I use all my power to fight it - knowing that every 10 seconds a girl becomes a victim of FGM.
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