Without a doubt, she has a unique beauty irradiated by her brown skin, which has been roasted by a warm sun, impregnating aromatic essences throughout her body, however, despite her exuberant physical beauty and for becoming one of the most sought-after African models In the fashion market, Waris Dirie suffered one of the worst attacks a woman can suffer: genital mutilation.
Female sexual mutilation – known as excision – involves cutting the skin overlying the end of the clitoris or excising (ablating) this extremely sensitive organ in a woman and often part of the labia minora is amputated.
This practice is intended to prevent women from enjoying sexual pleasure, since in some cultures or societies they are considered as simple sexual objects, domestic work and human reproduction. With these practices they are attacked physically and psychologically.
Another much more extreme mutilation is infibulation, also called pharaonic circumcision, which is an excision completed with the ablation of the labia majora, the stumps of which are sutured from one end to the other, leaving only a small hole that barely allows the passage of urine, menstrual flow and later, penetration.
This practice has serious consequences: bleeding, anemia, fluid retention, pelvic infections, and tears in childbirth.
It has been considered that this ritual has no connection with particular religion, since animist tribes, Jews, Christians and Muslims practice it, the latter being the one most identified with this “transition” rite.
In most Muslim countries, labor laws in the industrial or administrative sector have as the first victim the working woman in relation to unequal wages, maternal facilities or with regard to retirement. When it comes to family laws – in any Arab country – since the purpose is to protect the benefits of the family as an economic unit, they give all power to men.
These “ceremonies” force an increasing number of young women who leave their country of origin, to emigrate to Europe or North America, mainly, adding to the existing food and work problems. All this encourages prostitution, hatred and the constant denunciation of groups that consider “Islamist totalitarianism” comparable to Nazism and Stalinism, leading to constant violent clashes: all done “in the name of God.”
The case of Waris Dirie is very significant. She was born in Somalia, in a nomadic family. He does not know his age but he could be 56 years old (1965). At around five, her mother led her into the darkness of the desert and let a gypsy woman remove her clitoris. Later, they sewed her up with plant thorns and tied her legs for 40 days.
However, years later, after leaving her country, her beauty earned her a millionaire contract with the Revlon brand and being part of the unforgettable Bond girls. In September 1996, she was appointed Special Ambassador by the UN for her campaign against female mutilation. She is the author of the book The Desert Flower (Editorial Planeta, 1999), in which she talks about her childhood and how she left Africa – her name means “Desert Flower” -.
According to WHO estimates, more than 130 million women have been victims of sexual mutilation and, annually, two million girls are at risk of such practices.
Let us understand that the woman is not a sexual object, nor of domestic work or of simple human reproduction, but that she is the repository of life itself.
Twitter: @plumavertical
* Jorge Iván Garduño has a degree in Communication Sciences and Journalism from UNAM. Photographer, writer, journalist and promoter of reading. He is currently the Communications Coordinator of the National Chamber of the Mexican Editorial Industry..