Waris Dirie

Varis Dirie is a fashion model originally from East Africa. In a woman, it is not so much height, weight and other parameters of the figure that are interesting, as courage and biography, which formed the basis of the musical Wüstenblume, written by the composer Jorn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen and based on the script by Gil Mehmert.

The catwalk star was born to a tribe of Somali nomads in 1965. The exact date of birth of the beauty, whose name means “desert flower”, is unknown. According to tribal traditions, parents did not bother fixing the birthdays of their children, there were many of them, and half of them did not live up to adulthood. Varys had 11 brothers and sisters, of whom six died in childhood and early adolescence.

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A post shared by Waris Dirie (@ waris.dirie) on May 12, 2019 at 2:17 am PDT

Two sisters of the model became victims of female circumcision: one died a couple of days after that, the other died 10 years later, unable to give birth. The fact is that a barbaric procedure, the meaning of which is to forever deprive a future woman of the pleasure of intimacy, not only mutilates female genital organs, but is also carried out without anesthesia and in unsanitary conditions.

At the age of 5, Varis was also circumcised. And when the girl, who nursed her younger brothers and sisters and grazed the cattle, turned 13, a rich old man married her. The groom promised his parents 5 dromedaries (one-humped camels) for the bride. Varys decided to flee. The girl's mother did not help her daughter, but she did not prevent her from escaping either.

Barefoot Varis walked across the desert to the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, where her relatives lived. The girl covered 697 km, miraculously not becoming a victim of predatory animals and rapists. In the capital, Dirie worked at a construction site, and then one of her distant relatives went to work at the Somali Embassy in Great Britain and agreed to take Varis with him as a housekeeper and nanny.

When the Somali diplomat was recalled to his homeland, the girl remained in London as an illegal migrant. Dirie studied English, worked in a fast food restaurant, and to avoid deportation, she entered into a fictitious marriage. Fashion photographer Terence Donovan drew attention to a beautiful black girl, thanks to whom a photo of Varis in 1987 adorned the pages of Pirelli's calendar.

In the late 80s and early 90s of the 20th century, Varis became the face of fashion brands, shone on the covers of glossy magazines and starred in the James Bond film "Sparks from the Eyes". In 1997, at the peak of her modeling career, Dirie spoke about female circumcision in an interview with Laura Ziv, a correspondent for the women's magazine Marie Claire. The interview had a huge resonance, and Varis became the UN ambassador to combat the barbaric procedure.

Dirie wrote her first novel, Desert Flower, in collaboration with writer and publicist Kathleen Miller. The model's autobiography became a bestseller. In the hit of the Brazilian company Globo, the soap opera Clone, created at the turn of the millennium, words about the contradiction of female circumcision to the norms of Islam were put into the mouth of the enlightened Muslim “Uncle Ali”.

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Later Varis's bibliography was replenished with the books A Letter to My Mother and Children of the Desert, and Dirie's debut novel in 2009 was filmed by director Sherri Horman. At the international festival in San Sebastian, the painting "Desert Flower" won the Audience Award.

In 2002, Dirie created a foundation in Vienna to fight female genital mutilation, and in 2010 she became an ambassador for peace. According to Varys, the only way to defeat the barbaric custom that is now crippling millions of girls is by making women financially independent from their husbands.

Varys underwent a series of reconstructive surgeries that helped her find the joy of motherhood. The fruit of love with jazz musician Dana Murray was the son of Aleik. Later, Dirie gave birth to her second son Leon, but kept his father's name a secret. Information is spread on the Internet that she has adopted two more, but this information has not been documented.

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Varis is friends with the actress of the main role in the film "Desert Flower" - the actress of Ethiopian origin Leah Kebede. The woman considers running and swimming as the best rest. In the biography of Dirie, there were 2 incidents: in 2004, the house of the activist in Vienna was attacked by 26-year-old Portuguese Paulo Augusto, and in 2008 she went missing for 3 days.

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A post shared by Waris Dirie (@ waris.dirie) on Jun 12, 2019 at 12:56 pm PDT

The celebrity continues to fight for women's rights. In 2019, the writer's Instagram regularly features videos with Varis's performances in various parts of the world under the slogans "Female circumcision is not a purification, but a crime" and "Human rights are impossible without women's rights."

1998 - "Desert Flower" 2004 - "Dawn in the Desert" 2005 - "Children of the Desert" 2007 - "A Letter to My Mother" 2010 - "Daughter of the Nomads" ("Black Woman, White Land") 2014 - "Safa"

Waris Dirie 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Waris Dirie in 2021 ?

Waris Dirie Net Worth 2022

Waris Dirie 's revenue is $1.5M in 2022. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Waris Dirie and could vary in the range between $539K - $1.1M.

Waris Dirie Net Worth 2021

Waris Dirie 's revenue is $1.6M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Waris Dirie and could vary in the range between $920.6K - $1.3M.

Waris Dirie Net Worth 2020

Waris Dirie 's revenue is $1.6M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Waris Dirie and could vary in the range between $555.8K - $2M.

Waris Dirie Net Worth 2019

Waris Dirie 's revenue is $1.1M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Waris Dirie and could vary in the range between $738.9K - $1.9M.

Waris Dirie Net Worth 2018

Waris Dirie 's revenue is $1.9M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Waris Dirie and could vary in the range between $948.9K - $1.8M.

Waris Dirie Net Worth 2017

Waris Dirie 's revenue is $1.3M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Waris Dirie and could vary in the range between $707.8K - $1.6M.

Waris Dirie Net Worth 2016

Waris Dirie 's revenue is $1.8M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Waris Dirie and could vary in the range between $579.3K - $1.1M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Waris Dirie. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Waris Dirie makes a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Waris Dirie's projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.