UPDATE: Ex-Model Waris Dirie Found in Brussels
By PAUL AMES – 1 hour ago
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Police on Friday found Waris Dirie, three days after the Somali-born model who launched a worldwide campaign against female genital mutilation had vanished.
Dirie, 43, appeared to be in good health and was being questioned by police about the disappearance, said Estelle Arpigny, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office.
She declined to give further details, saying it was unclear what had happened since Dirie vanished early Wednesday. Belgian media reports said police found her Friday afternoon walking the Brussels' Grand Place square.
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Though she was among the top models in the world for some years, model Waris Dirie has disfigured feet, covered with scars she acquired during a nine-day flight across the desert after she ran away from her nomadic family in Somalia to escape a forced marriage.
When she was five years old, Dirie underwent an extreme form of female genital mutilation. As her mother held her down on a rock, a nomad woman removed flesh from her genitals, "with an old razor blade, and then she sewed the wound coarsely"—using thorns to punch holes—"leaving only a tiny hole to urinate." The procedure left Dirie permanently changed, physically and emotionally for the rest of her life. She also has more private disfigurements that she brought to world attention.
In 1997, Waris Dirie quit modelling to focus on her work against female genital mutilation. Dirie became publicly involved in a campaign to ban the process of female genital mutilation practiced in Muslim countries.
On Tuesday she was traveling from Somalia and wanted to check into a hotel in Sofitel Brussels. She was to make an appearance at a UN sponsored event on female genital mutilation. She has not been seen since. Her campaign against female mutilation has not gone unnoticed by Islamic fanatics and she has had a number of death threats, so anything is possible.
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Published: Friday 07 March 2008 13:33 UTC
Last updated: Friday 07 March 2008 13:35 UTC Radio Netherlands
Brussels - Special UN envoy Waris Dirie has disappeared during a visit to the Belgian capital Brussels. The Somalia-born woman came to Brussels on Tuesday, and no sign has been seen of her since.
Ms Dirie, who is a former top model and carries an Austrian passport, heads an international campaign against female circumcision. On Friday, she was due to receive an award for her work in the southern Dutch city of Kerkrade.
