Book Reviews: Desert Children
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Author: Waris Dirie with Connie Millborn. Translated by Sheelagh Alabaster. Publisher: Virago—published in New Zealand by Penguin. Price: $29.95
Even readers who have not read this courageous author’s bestsellers, Desert Flower and Desert Dawn, will be perhaps surprised and then horrified by its subject.
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Dirie was born in Somalia and underwent Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) at the age of five. Her mother told her that it was for her own good and would make her a ‘proper’ woman.
She was ‘done’ by an old woman with a rusty blood stained razor blade and sewn up with cotton and a ‘needle’ of a twig.
She was held down by relatives, immune to her screams of pain and the loss of blood.
Dirie escaped from her desert home when she was about to be forced into marriage to an old man.
She found her way to London and was discovered working at a McDonald’s and became an international fashion model.
In Desert Children, Dirie, who became a United Nations ambassador campaigning against FGM, brings the problem, once thought to exist only in Africa, Asia and the Middle East to the doorsteps of Europe.
It is estimated up to 500,000 young girls are subjected to this primitive practice in Europe, which has millions of immigrants from these countries.
These people cling to their old traditions, including FGM, often taking girls on ‘holiday’ back to their nation of origin for the procedure.
Most European nations have outlawed the practice.
However France, which has more than six million Moslems is the only one to have taken cases to court and won.
However, the United Kingdom with a large Moslem population has made not a single prosecution.
Waris Dirie is now waging her war in Europe with the help of a team of committed people.
She gives the victims a voice, tries to persuade governments to recognize the problem and the police to take action.
If you believe that this practice cannot happen in New Zealand, think again.
At the end of the book is a comprehensive appendix listing organizations which can help.
For more information about Waris Dirie and her work visit www.waris-dirie-foundation.com
Source: Times India, March 1, 2006
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