Desert Flower

An interesting read of sorts.  Desert Flower by Waris Dirie, take a peek at these pics: http://www.fanpix.net/gallery/waris-dirie-pictures.htm and you will see who this book is about.  Desert Flower is an autobiography of a woman, Waris, who grew up in Somalia and later ventured to London.  The early chapters capture her life in tribal life in Somalia.  As an American it is hard to read some of the horror, especially for women (young girls) who go through a ritual of getting “circumcised” by the gypsy woman using a razor blade…. frightening.  Waris does escape after the horrifying experience (she is also to be married to a much older man through an arranged wedding her father has made).  On the way out to Mogadishu (the capital) she is almost raped as she hitchhikes through the country side.  She is reunited with her sister (who also ran away after her father had arranged a wedding for her too!), then off to her aunt’s home (where she finally finds a home as a “slave laborer” of sorts for the family).  Tired, don’t be, it gets better… Waris decides she wants to join the uncle when he is named Ambassador to London and work as his servant abroad.  She stays four years and meets a guy from church who wants her to become a model (she has no idea what a model does)!  She eventually marries to stay in London, crazy story, and loses a good amount of money through a “bad lawyer” and then marries again to keep her status as a citizen and not get deported to Somalia.  OK, I realize she had a really tough life, but she is something else.  Her “naiveté,” as she portrays it is not so believable and almost makes her not very sympathetic.  The duel between the man who volunteers to be married to her (and then becomes her stalker) is a bit outrageous.  Waris does not help the belief that models are not smart… in fact she clearly fits the mold.  Luckily this is a quick read.  Yes you can watch this “heartwarming tale of African woman makes good” as she cries and tells all on Barbara Walters in the late 1990s.  Now she lives in Brooklyn!  Sorry, but she really turned me off as she tries and make everyone else seem evil and unable to help her.  There has to be another side of Waris that needs to be told….  Skip this one, though she is a beautiful woman, wish she was a bit more modest….