Waris Dirie Quotes
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
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.
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.
Give love and share happiness with the people around you, and never give up fighting for what you believe in.
I love the truth. Tell the truth and live the truth, because we've seen enough lies and look what it's doing.
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.
I know what I am fighting for. I am fighting for the most basic rights of innocent children. And that is why I never take the criticism too deep under my skin.
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.
Sometimes I wonder where I am from. I am either way ahead or I come from another world. I don't recognise this world.
Fashion is fun, ridiculously fun. But it's base and it's wrong. You're not doing anything good for the world. You're just saying, 'Buy it, buy it, buy it.
Less hatred, more love, less war, more peace, more respect for the Mother Nature and for other people.
Laws are important. But they can only be effective if the people know about the particular laws.
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.
I don't know what a supermodel is. If they call me that, I might have to punch them. It's just so vain and so unreal.
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.
I've never been one to stay still. I was born a nomad, and I still am a nomad and always will be.
