Waris Dirie, Desert Flower Review

Waris Dirie tells her own story of growing up in the desert, escaping to England, becoming a model and eventually an U.N. ambassador.
It is a very emotional story, you can really imagine how she feels in every situation she describes. This story gives you a great view on the life of desert nomads, which is plenty of work and danger, and shows you how people are formed by nomad's life. But the real topic of the story is neither nomad's life nor modeling. It is about circumcision. Waris Dirie was circumcised as a little girl and operated later to avoid the pain which comes with it. She shows you how horrible this ritual for every girl is and for how long they have to deal with the consequences: their whole life. Reading how painful but important for the protagonist it is, how difficult it is to decide on surgery later and why it is done makes you feel sorry for every circumcised woman. After having read this book or seen the film you will have a different view on somalian culture. The story is told in a great way and really worth reading but it is also a difficult and tragic topic. Not everybody is able to get over it without tears. "Desert Flower" is a fantastic story but quite hard to read.