48 pages • 1 hour read
Waris DirieDesert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Waris Dirie
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of female genital mutilation, rape, and attempted rape.
Waris Dirie, a model, actor, author, and activist, is the protagonist and narrator of Desert Flower, the memoir of her life in Somalia, London, and New York. She is characterized as resilient and determined. Her early life in Somalia is marked by traumatic and difficult experiences, from undergoing female genital mutilation at only five years old to experiencing rape and numerous other attempted assaults. She defies cultural norms by escaping an arranged marriage to a much older man and, later, by choosing to reverse her FGM despite immense cultural pressure. Dirie further illustrates her characteristic resilience by outsmarting her exploitative uncle and aunt to remain living in London, where she manages to form a community, work, and find housing despite having barely any money and not speaking English.
When Dirie’s modeling career takes off, she begins using her platform to speak publicly about her experiences with FGM, which continues to cause significant pain and distress throughout her adult life and still affects hundreds of millions of girls and women throughout Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She becomes an ambassador for the United Nations and travels around the world, including to conservative African communities who still value and practice FGM, in her mission to have the practice globally abolished.
As the author and narrator, Dirie intentionally describes FGM in frank, unsparing detail. Her use of graphic language and imagery to depict both the procedure and its painful aftermath highlights her refusal to euphemize her story for the ease of her readers. In choosing to describe her experience in such explicit terms, Dirie takes a stand against the silence and stigma that surrounds FGM, shaping the memoir itself into a tool for anti-FGM advocacy.
Halemo and Aman
Dirie’s older sisters, Halemo and Aman, primarily illustrate the horror of FGM. Both girls experience FGM as children, just as Dirie does. Dirie only learns later that Halemo dies from her procedure, as alluded to when Aman says as a quiet aside, “I just hope I don’t wind up like Halemo” (38). Dirie’s family never mentions her death, and the silence surrounding it is echoed when Dirie’s family travels to visit other friends and the absence of young girls is noticed but not mentioned. Dirie writes, “When we visited [the friends] again, the girls were missing. No one spoke the truth about their absence, or even spoke of them at all” (45-46). The girls’ deaths illustrate the danger of the procedure, as well as the fact that the community is colluding to suppress knowledge about the horrors of FGM, particularly from men and young girls.
Dirie is first exposed to the horror of FGM through Aman’s procedure. Before this point, Dirie looks forward to the procedure as an event that marks her coming of age. Dirie watches from behind a tree as her sister is held down and “a look of pain flash[es] across Aman’s face” (39). When Aman tries to escape, Dirie is shocked to see blood pouring down her sister’s legs. Dirie’s description of Aman’s procedure illustrates the excruciating and invasive nature of FGM.
Halwu and Marilyn
Halwu and Marilyn, both Somali women, assist Dirie when she is first living independently in London. Both Halwu and Marilyn help her when she has no contacts, no work visa, very little English, and very little money. Their support through this time is instrumental in Dirie’s later success.
Halwu, whom Dirie approaches in a department store, lets Dirie stay in her room at the YMCA and helps her communicate with Malcolm Fairchild, which kickstarts her modeling career. Marilyn allows Dirie to make the fake passport (using Marilyn’s details and Dirie’s picture) that enables her to travel to Morocco to act in the Bond film, though Dirie steals the passport from Marilyn after she gets nervous about the plan. Marilyn forgives her, and Dirie lives with Marilyn and her mother when her modeling work dries up and she runs out of money.
The two women also contribute to Dirie’s journey in understanding and advocating against FGM. Halwu cautions Dirie to not have sex with men in England because they don’t know about FGM. In part due to her advice, Dirie learns that most women in Western countries have intact genitalia, and she begins to feel that FGM prevents her from developing emotional and physical connections with men. Marilyn, who grew up in England and did not experience FGM, cries when she sees Dirie’s vulva and supports her through her FGM-reversal surgery, displaying her compassion and care for Dirie as a survivor of FGM.
Malcolm Fairchild
Malcolm Fairchild “discovers” Dirie outside of his daughter’s school in London when Dirie is dropping off her cousin, Sophie, at school. Malcolm gives Dirie his business card and attempts to talk to her about taking her photo, but Dirie, given her experiences with predatory men, mistrusts him and runs away. Years later, Malcolm encounters Dirie again at a McDonald’s. This prompts Dirie to show his card to Halwu, who accompanies her to have her photo taken by Malcolm. Malcolm shares her photos with modeling agencies, which kickstarts her career: Through Malcolm, she is contacted by a modeling agency, which leads to her front cover on the Pirelli calendar.
