Desert Flower

Waris Dirie, 1965 yılında Somali'de göçebe bir ailenin kızı olarak doğdu. 5 yaşındayken kadın sünnetine maruz kaldı.
13 yaşında 60 yaşındaki bir adamla evlendirilmek istenince evden kaçıp çölü aşarak Mogadişu'ya gitti ve daha sonra Londra'ya büyükelçilikte hizmetçi olarak çalışmaya gitti.
Londra'da sokaklarda yaşadığı ve McDonald's'ta temizlik yaptığı dönemde ünlü fotoğrafçı Terence Donovan tarafından keşfedildi.
1980'lerin sonunda ve 1990'larda Pirelli takvimi de dahil olmak üzere moda dünyasının en aranan modellerinden biri oldu.
1997 yılında mankenliği bırakarak kadın sünnetine karşı mücadeleye başladı. Birleşmiş Milletler özel elçisi oldu ve kendi vakfı olan "Desert Flower Foundation"ı kurarak bu gelenekle mücadeleyi sürdürdü.
Hayatını anlattığı "Çöl Çiçeği" (1998) kitabı dünya çapında çok satanlar arasına girdi ve 2009 yılında sinemaya uyarlandı.
Ve işte bu inanılmaz hayatı anlatan o film.

Daha 5 yaşındayken hiçbir cerrahi bilgisi olmayan insan tarafından jiletle sünnet edilen, 13 yaşında kendinden yaşça büyük bir adam(?) ile evlenmemek için yalın ayak yalnız başına çölü aşan Waris Dirie, o sadece evlilikten değil kendisine gelenek adı altında dayatılan işkencelerden de kaçtı. Belki kendisini koruyamadı ama tüm dünyaya kadın sünnetini anlattı ve insanların bu işkenceyi fark etmesini sağladı. Günümüzde yapılması yasak olan bu işlem hala bir yerlerde yapılmaya devam ediyor, daha çocuk olan minicik kızlarımız kendilerinden yaşça büyük adamlar(?) ile evlendirilmeye devam ediyor. Bazen dünya bunca kötülük ile kasılıp kavrulurken neden helak olmuyoruz diye düşünüyorum.. düşünüyorum ve düşünüyorum.

Waris Dirie, 1965 yılında Somali'de göçebe bir ailenin kızı olarak doğdu. 5 yaşındayken kadın sünnetine maruz kaldı.
13 yaşında 60 yaşındaki bir adamla evlendirilmek istenince evden kaçıp çölü aşarak Mogadişu'ya gitti ve daha sonra Londra'ya büyükelçilikte hizmetçi olarak çalışmaya gitti.
Londra'da sokaklarda yaşadığı ve McDonald's'ta temizlik yaptığı dönemde ünlü fotoğrafçı Terence Donovan tarafından keşfedildi.
1980'lerin sonunda ve 1990'larda Pirelli takvimi de dahil olmak üzere moda dünyasının en aranan modellerinden biri oldu.
1997 yılında mankenliği bırakarak kadın sünnetine karşı mücadeleye başladı. Birleşmiş Milletler özel elçisi oldu ve kendi vakfı olan "Desert Flower Foundation"ı kurarak bu gelenekle mücadeleyi sürdürdü.
Hayatını anlattığı "Çöl Çiçeği" (1998) kitabı dünya çapında çok satanlar arasına girdi ve 2009 yılında sinemaya uyarlandı.
Ve işte bu inanılmaz hayatı anlatan o film.

Daha 5 yaşındayken hiçbir cerrahi bilgisi olmayan insan tarafından jiletle sünnet edilen, 13 yaşında kendinden yaşça büyük bir adam(?) ile evlenmemek için yalın ayak yalnız başına çölü aşan Waris Dirie, o sadece evlilikten değil kendisine gelenek adı altında dayatılan işkencelerden de kaçtı. Belki kendisini koruyamadı ama tüm dünyaya kadın sünnetini anlattı ve insanların bu işkenceyi fark etmesini sağladı. Günümüzde yapılması yasak olan bu işlem hala bir yerlerde yapılmaya devam ediyor, daha çocuk olan minicik kızlarımız kendilerinden yaşça büyük adamlar(?) ile evlendirilmeye devam ediyor. Bazen dünya bunca kötülük ile kasılıp kavrulurken neden helak olmuyoruz diye düşünüyorum.. düşünüyorum ve düşünüyorum.

“a respectable woman can have fun and still be respectable.”
“only a cut woman is a good woman.”

my heart bleeds for every woman that has ever undergone this and every brutal act. i love how this film raised awareness about female genital mutilation (fgm) and how it affects the lives of women who have undergone it. it is honestly crazy to think that this and other ruthless and life-threatening acts existed and still exist up to this day. mind you, these do not only happen in somalia but also in other countries, especially in africa.

waris dirie, the woman that you are. i love how she later became a human rights activist in the fight against female genital mutilation. she’s such a strong woman ! 🫡

“she is my sister.”

ARGH a moment of appreciation and applause for marylin, terry, and mama (pushpa) ! the people who genuinely helped and supported her < 3

“for over three thousand years, the family truly believes that a daughter who is not circumcised is not clean because what exists between our legs is unclean. so it must be removed and sealed up, as proof of viginity and virtue . . ”

&

“when i was a child i said ’i do not want to be a woman.’ why, when it is so painful and so unhappy? but now that i am grown, i am proud to be who i am. but for the sake of all of us, let us try and change what that means to be a woman.”

sometimes we forget how lucky we are to be born in a free country. imagine the pain, inequality, injustice, and ruthlessness those women experienced and endured : (

p.s — this is actually a true story.
*
END FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION. END FGM.*

“a respectable woman can have fun and still be respectable.”
“only a cut woman is a good woman.”

my heart bleeds for every woman that has ever undergone this and every brutal act. i love how this film raised awareness about female genital mutilation (fgm) and how it affects the lives of women who have undergone it. it is honestly crazy to think that this and other ruthless and life-threatening acts existed and still exist up to this day. mind you, these do not only happen in somalia but also in other countries, especially in africa.

waris dirie, the woman that you are. i love how she later became a human rights activist in the fight against female genital mutilation. she’s such a strong woman ! 🫡

“she is my sister.”

ARGH a moment of appreciation and applause for marylin, terry, and mama (pushpa) ! the people who genuinely helped and supported her < 3

“for over three thousand years, the family truly believes that a daughter who is not circumcised is not clean because what exists between our legs is unclean. so it must be removed and sealed up, as proof of viginity and virtue . . ”

&

“when i was a child i said ’i do not want to be a woman.’ why, when it is so painful and so unhappy? but now that i am grown, i am proud to be who i am. but for the sake of all of us, let us try and change what that means to be a woman.”

sometimes we forget how lucky we are to be born in a free country. imagine the pain, inequality, injustice, and ruthlessness those women experienced and endured : (

p.s — this is actually a true story.
*
END FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION. END FGM.*

An important story that needs to be told. 
Thank you to some random teacher at my school for recommending this to me a year ago

An important story that needs to be told. 
Thank you to some random teacher at my school for recommending this to me a year ago

Desert flower should’ve just been a documentary. The film clearly had good intentions but it is genuinely ineffective carrier for its own message. It introduced me to Waris Dirie and made want to learn more about her, so in that narrow sense it did its job. But reading about her real life afterward made the movie feel like it almost trivializes part of her story rather than honoring them.
The comic relief feels misplaced, the side plots go nowhere and say nothing, and so much screen time gets dedicated to the modeling world without showing us anything interesting about it. What is even more strange is how they reworked parts of her real life into something more palatable and cliche. The friend who first gave her housing was a Somali woman in real life, and the film turned her into a quirky white woman instead. That’s not a small change. It feeds into the white savior framing and the “clueless immigrant” tone that runs through too much of the movie.
And then there’s the female genital mutilation, which the heart of everything. Waris didn’t just survived FGM, she made it her life’s mission to end it. She became a special UN ambassador. She built an entire foundation around it. She stood in front of the world and spoke about something most people couldn’t bring themselves to name. That fight is the reason her story matters beyond her own remarkable life. The film barely scratches the surface of any of that. It shows the personal trauma in fragments but strips away all the political urgency and the sheer scale of what she was fighting against. It deserved more than a chapter. It deserved to be the entire spine of the movie. 
The whole thing also feels dated in its perspective. The way her emotional journey is framed too heavily into this civilized west versus barbaric Africa dynamic, as if her assimilation into western life is the liberation the story is building toward. It is uncomfortable to watch. Though to be fair it is hard to know how much of that is the filmmaking and how much was the reality of her experience, so that part deserves some grace.
The one thing that genuinely works is the lead actress. She carried this film for more than it deserved.

Desert flower should’ve just been a documentary. The film clearly had good intentions but it is genuinely ineffective carrier for its own message. It introduced me to Waris Dirie and made want to learn more about her, so in that narrow sense it did its job. But reading about her real life afterward made the movie feel like it almost trivializes part of her story rather than honoring them.
The comic relief feels misplaced, the side plots go nowhere and say nothing, and so much screen time gets dedicated to the modeling world without showing us anything interesting about it. What is even more strange is how they reworked parts of her real life into something more palatable and cliche. The friend who first gave her housing was a Somali woman in real life, and the film turned her into a quirky white woman instead. That’s not a small change. It feeds into the white savior framing and the “clueless immigrant” tone that runs through too much of the movie.
And then there’s the female genital mutilation, which the heart of everything. Waris didn’t just survived FGM, she made it her life’s mission to end it. She became a special UN ambassador. She built an entire foundation around it. She stood in front of the world and spoke about something most people couldn’t bring themselves to name. That fight is the reason her story matters beyond her own remarkable life. The film barely scratches the surface of any of that. It shows the personal trauma in fragments but strips away all the political urgency and the sheer scale of what she was fighting against. It deserved more than a chapter. It deserved to be the entire spine of the movie. 
The whole thing also feels dated in its perspective. The way her emotional journey is framed too heavily into this civilized west versus barbaric Africa dynamic, as if her assimilation into western life is the liberation the story is building toward. It is uncomfortable to watch. Though to be fair it is hard to know how much of that is the filmmaking and how much was the reality of her experience, so that part deserves some grace.
The one thing that genuinely works is the lead actress. She carried this film for more than it deserved.

это могла быть шикарная история о том, как девочка, подвергшаяся женскому обрезанию, сбежала по пустыне от женитьбы, смогла попасть в Лондон и стала моделью, но это не так, это хорошая задумка с хуевой режиссурой

это могла быть шикарная история о том, как девочка, подвергшаяся женскому обрезанию, сбежала по пустыне от женитьбы, смогла попасть в Лондон и стала моделью, но это не так, это хорошая задумка с хуевой режиссурой