Model Waris Dirie Becomes Austrian Citizen

April 3, 2005

BERLIN - Somali former supermodel and Bond girl Waris Dirie has become an Austrian citizen to pursue her work fighting traditional genital mutilation, she told a German newspaper.

Dirie said in an interview with the Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung to be published on Saturday that although she missed Africa, Vienna had become her home.

"I recently became an Austrian citizen but in my heart I am still a nomad," the 39-year-old United Nations goodwill ambassador was quoted as saying.

"My home is for me the most beautiful country in the world.

Unfortunately it is at war and there has been no government since 1991. It has become impossible to travel there."

Dirie, who has recounted her forcible circumcision at the age of five in best-selling books, said she aimed to continue her campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM) among Africans living in Europe.

"I always knew that there were cases in Europe - such traditions don't stop at national borders. But it shocked me that it has affected a half million women here, primarily because no one seems to know and these women receive no assistance.

"It has become clear to me in the numerous conversations I have had that all women who have suffered something like this need psychological help."

Up to 130 million women around the world have undergone various forms of FGM, according to the World Health Organization, including two million annually in Africa.

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