Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad

Nigel is reluctant to let Dirie travel to New York alone, but she finally convinces him to let her go. She stays in her agency’s booker’s apartment in the Village. Nigel arrives afterward, much to Dirie’s chagrin. She finally convinces Nigel that she hates him. After a few weeks of moping, he leaves.

Dirie shoots perfume ads for Revlon and Oil of Olay, performs in music videos, and appears in many fashion magazines, including Elle, Allure, Glamour, and Italian and French Vogue. At one shoot, she poses naked atop an enormous bull and is bucked off numerous times. Still unused to keeping appointments, Dirie struggles with being late or forgetting meetings.

Dirie describes the chaos of catwalk season: rushing to casting calls, spending long days getting hair and makeup done, and standing for hours in the clothes, not wanting to crease them before the show. Dirie loves walking on the catwalk. She travels to Milan, Paris, London, and back to New York.

Dirie admits that the business can be ruthless for young women. She describes stylists or photographers criticizing her scarred feet or her legs, which are bowed from malnutrition as a child. There are cruel and exploitative people in the industry.

Dirie reflects that the capitalistic, materialistic nature of the modeling industry is not in line with her values, which center around friends, family, nature, and personal integrity. She decides that she wants to use her platform to do good.

While on holiday in Trinidad, Dirie gets a call from producers at the BBC, who tell her they want to make a documentary about her life. At first, Dirie is reluctant, but she agrees on the condition that the BBC will help her find her mother in Somalia. The BBC begins filming Dirie’s daily life, including modeling shoots and catch-ups with friends, and locations in London, like the school where Malcolm Fairchild first spotted Dirie. She hosts a television show called Soul Train. Reading the cue cards overwhelms her, and she is embarrassed that the BBC is filming her.

Dirie travels to Africa with the BBC film crew, but they struggle to locate Dirie’s mother. Many other women claim to be her, hoping to receive money. Dirie reassures the crew that her mother will arrive on their third day, but this deadline passes. A Somali man arrives in a truck, claiming that he remembers Dirie from her youth and that he is a close friend of the family. Dirie doesn’t remember him, but he says he will get her mother, so Dirie convinces the BBC to give the man gas money. One day, Dirie confidently predicts that her mother will arrive at six o’clock, and she does. They embrace joyfully.

Over the next few days, Dirie and her mother struggle to talk. It is awkward at first, as Dirie’s Somali is poor and so much time has passed. Dirie also catches up with her little brother, Ali, and her cousin. Dirie argues with Ali about the Somali practice of cutting down saplings to use as animal enclosures; Dirie suggests that the forest would flourish and more rain would fall if they let these plants grow. Dirie’s family is critical of the fact that she is not married yet; she objects to the fact that women in Somalia have no choice about who and when they marry. Her brother and cousin playfully tell her to shut up.

Dirie suggests that her mother come to live with her in England or America, but her mother explains that she needs to care for Dirie’s father and the five children of his young wife, who ran away. Dirie cries as she leaves Somalia, wondering when she will see her mother again.

On a night out in New York, Dirie meets Dana, a drummer with a “funky afro” in a band. They talk during a break in Dana’s band’s set and later go outside for air. They hug. Dirie tells him to call her at three o’clock the next afternoon. He calls 20 minutes after three, and she admonishes him for his lateness. They go on a date, where Dirie tells Dana that she knows that she will have his babies. Her candid comment unsettles him since the two barely know each other, and they don’t talk for a week. Finally, Dirie calls him, and they both surprise each other and themselves by professing their love. They move in together, and a year later, Dirie is pregnant.

Dirie and Dana want to get married, but Dirie is still married to Nigel. They travel to England together, and Dirie convinces Dana to let her go to speak to Nigel alone. Dirie and Nigel argue because Nigel doesn’t want a divorce. Dirie explains that she is with Dana, having his baby, and wants to marry him. Nigel insists that Dirie owes him money, even though Nigel has taken a lot of Dirie’s money over the years. Nigel tells Dirie that he is going to kill her and then himself, and he shoves her to the ground. Nigel is shocked by his actions and drives Dirie back to the bed and breakfast where she is staying with Dana.

They give up trying to convince Nigel and fly back to New York. Dirie lives with Dana’s family while he tours with his band. One day, she calls him urgently, saying that she is about to have the baby. He begs her to wait and hurries to join her.

During her labor, Dirie repeatedly cries that she wants to swing upside down from a tree, much to Dana’s amusement. She finally gives birth to a baby boy, whom she names Aleeke, the Somali word for lion.

Dirie reflects on how difficult it is to be a woman in general and how much more difficult it is to be a woman in Africa. She discusses the pain FGM caused her as well as the stress of pregnancy and childbirth.

Dirie does an interview for Marie Claire about FGM. Afterward, both the magazine and the charity Equality Now are swamped with letters decrying FGM and praising Dirie’s bravery. The United Nations contacts Dirie, wanting her to join their fight against FGM, and she becomes a special ambassador. Dirie learns that 2 million girls are subjected to FGM each year, and she becomes more determined to end the practice. Dirie learns that FGM also occurs in Western countries, such as the United States, in families of African descent, although legislation has made the practice illegal. She shares the story of a father in New York who cut off his daughter’s genitals with a steak knife.

Dirie believes that her mission in life is to fight FGM. She says that this mission was assigned to her by God, who spared her from the lion. She often travels to Africa with the UN to speak out against the practice, despite the risk to her life posed by fanatics.

Although Dirie condemns FGM, she is proud to be African. She loves African culture and reflects positively on the gratitude and joy she experienced in Somalia as a child. She criticizes the dissatisfaction of materialistic Americans who have access to so much food and wealth. She also believes that Americans do not appreciate the wonder of living in a country that is at peace; many of her family members have been killed in Somali civil wars.

Dirie continues to pray for a future where FGM is abolished.