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My mother named me after a miracle of nature: Waris means desert flower. The desert flower blooms in a barren environment where few living things can survive.

Waris Dirie

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Waris Dirie
Age: 59
Born: 1965
Born: October 21
Autobiographer
Feminist
Film Actor
Goodwill Ambassador
Model
Novelist
Writer
Galcaio
Galkayo
Nature
Desert
Mean
Survive
Things
Miracle
Flower
Environment
Living
Blooms
Means
Barren
Mother
Named

More quotes by Waris Dirie

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I am strong, determined, impulsive, happy, and emotional.
Waris Dirie
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Women’s loyalty has to be earned with trust and affection, rather than barbaric rituals. The time has come to leave the old ways of suffering behind
Waris Dirie
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We need to empower women: provide them with work for their own income, and teach them to become independent of men so they will never have to have their children suffering the same torture.
Waris Dirie
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FGM breaches all human rights and has no place in any 21st century society.
Waris Dirie
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I belong nowhere and to no one.
Waris Dirie
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Don’t do to your daughters what has been done to you! They are perfect and beautiful.
Waris Dirie
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Personal style? I don't really believe in that. Whatever is comfortable.
Waris Dirie
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In the current situation, it is very difficult for foreign NGOs to work in Somalia because it is so unstable and dangerous. I really hope that my country will one day rise out of this mess and reach the potential it has.
Waris Dirie
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I always knew, from the very day of my own mutilation, that I would one day fight against this practice. I did not know how and when, but I knew that I would fight it.
Waris Dirie
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Less hatred, more love, less war, more peace, more respect for the Mother Nature and for other people.
Waris Dirie
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Every day, women move mountains. It is an insult to have an international women's day.
Waris Dirie
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I love life. I wish I could live another 500 years, truly. There is so much to do. I don't feel bitter or angry or disappointed. If anything, I am very grateful for where I come from. I have absolutely no regrets.
Waris Dirie
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I still do find it very difficult in the West to connect to this politeness of smiling, not saying how you're thinking or not saying how you really feel.
Waris Dirie
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Sometimes I wonder where I am from. I am either way ahead or I come from another world. I don't recognise this world.
Waris Dirie
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Give love and share happiness with the people around you, and never give up fighting for what you believe in.
Waris Dirie
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My family is and will always stay the most important to me.
Waris Dirie
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Because women and girls are not valued equally as human beings, they are treated as less than such. Female genital mutilation is one example of this that has to be stopped.
Waris Dirie
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When I became successful as a model in the United States, I knew that my chance to be heard had come and so I took it.
Waris Dirie
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I love the truth. Tell the truth and live the truth, because we've seen enough lies and look what it's doing.
Waris Dirie
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Female genital mutilation targets little girls, baby girls - fragile angels who are helpless, who cannot fight back. It's a crime against a child, a crime against humanity. It's abuse. It's absolutely criminal and we have to stop it.
Waris Dirie