[INTERVIEW] We're close to ending FGM: model-turned-activist Waris Dirie
Waris Dirie talks about her activity to eradicate female genital mutilation, during an interview with The Korea Times at a lounge in the Lotte Hotel World in eastern Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Sunhak Peace Prize
Model-turned-activist Waris Dirie receives Sunhak Peace Prize in Korea
By Lee Suh-yoon
Over the years, former supermodel Waris Dirie has received many awards for her work on eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM) in East Africa.
But she says the Sunhak Peace Prize, which she received in Korea on Saturday, is special.
"It's a peace prize. Peace means a lot to my life," Dirie said in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, Thursday. "Also, I'm receiving it in Korea, a conflict zone just a few miles from North Korea which needs freedom and peace."
Dirie, 54, a supermodel who has starred in Chanel ads and a Bond movie, started her fight against FGM in 1997, after publicly disclosing she had undergone it as a child in Somalia, her birth nation. Her activism led her to become a writer, a film producer and the first U.N. Special Ambassador for the Elimination of FGM from 1997 to 2003.
FGM involves partial or total removal of a female's external genitalia like the clitoris and labia. The U.N. estimates some 200 million girls and women in the world today ― mostly in East Africa ― have been subjected to the brutal procedure as a means of preserving their virginity, thus making them "marriageable" partners in the local community.
Dirie set up the Desert Flower Foundation in 2002 to prevent FGM practices and help victims who are often subject to a lifetime of psychological distress and physical complications after the procedure. The organization allows sponsors to enter into an indirect contract with parents ― funding them on the condition the girls are sent to school and not subjected to the inhumane operation.
There have been clear signs of progress. FGM rates for young girls in East Africa have dropped from around 70 percent to 7 percent over the last 20 years.
"We're almost there," Dirie said with a smile. "There is awareness, there is education, and young women in Africa know through the internet and social media that this (FGM) is wrong."
Dirie says her activism hinges on a philosophy of respect, which she developed in her personal interaction with nature while growing up in a nomadic tribe.
"We had to chase water. We could not just go get it, we had to pray and ask. We learned respect from nature," Dirie said. "So I cannot intentionally hurt or disrespect anything with life. And FGM ― it is the worst cruel thing you can do to disrespect a woman."
Once the practice of FGM is stamped out for good, Dirie says she will focus on education. She plans to use the prize money to build more schools for girls in Africa.
"They (girls) need to know their rights and be able to fight and stand for them without relying on anyone," she said. "And be free and whatever they choose to be."
The other recipient of the Sunhak Peace Prize this year was Akinwumi Adesina, the former Nigerian minister of agriculture and rural development and the current president of the African Development Bank, for aiding food security in the region.
The Sunhak award was set up by Han Hak-ja and her husband Moon Sun-Myung, founder of the Unification Church, well known for its controversial mass weddings. Since 2015, the biennial prize has awarded $1 million to individuals who advance sustainability, human rights and peace.
