Quotes from Waris Dirie

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.

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

The people celebrate with our traditional dancing: the women clapping their hands and chanting, their low sweet voices humming across the desert night, and the men leaping high into the air. Everyone contributes food, and we eat

When the shows begin in Milan for the season, every woman and girl in modeling heads there, along with every woman and girl who's ever dreamed of becoming a model. Suddenly the city is mobbed by extremely tall mutant women, running everywhere like ants.

nothing to be done, except go see them. I also knew they

When I was a child I said I don't want to be a woman. Why?! Because it's too painful to be a woman!" "Let us try and change what it means to be a woman.

Zeit ist doch nichts zum Anfassen, [...]. Wie kann man sie da verschwenden?

Personal style? I don't really believe in that. Whatever is comfortable.

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.

If you can survive in the desert, you survive anywhere. I know more than anything life in desert. You can tell by looking at the dirt how long ago it rained, how hard it rained, how much water came through. You can by looking at a plant, a tree, from an animal's look. I can read the desert like I read my hand.

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.

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.'

Sometimes I wonder where I am from. I am either way ahead or I come from another world. I don't recognise this world.

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.

Less hatred, more love, less war, more peace, more respect for the Mother Nature and for other people.

I can enjoy anywhere, and I can leave it. Life is about moving on.

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

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.

Every day, women move mountains. It is an insult to have an international women's day.

I belong nowhere and to no one.

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.

I've never been one to stay still. I was born a nomad, and I still am a nomad and always will be.

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.