Name : Cheang Hui Ji
Class : Accountancy
Title : Desert Flower


Desert Flower follows Waris through her childhood under the nomadic culture of the Somali desert. It is this strength that enabled Dirie to survive from female genital mutilation, her flight across the desert to avoid an arranged marriage, living as a servant in England, and finally achieving success as a model. She is able to tell the remarkable story of her life and about the struggles that women still face in many other cultures today. Waris Dirie now works with the United Nations to stop the practice of female genital mutilation and if her story can help to achieve this goal in any small way, then this book has achieved its theme of her journey.


This book raises main issues such as the tough life that females have in Somalia, female circumcision and arranged marriages. It also draws attention to the abominable practice of female genital mutilation that leads to the death of many girls as they bleed to death, are infected by bacteria (tetanus) or don't survive the psychological shock and to constant pain and suffering for those who survive it.


I admire Waris for her courage and her spirit to struggle for survive under what given condition was. This can be proved when Waris runs away from her family in Somalia to avoid an arranged marriage, walking by herself across the desert to Mogadishu, where her family finds her work as a maid at the Somalian embassy in London. Waris then meets famous photographer Donaldson while working as a cleaner at a fast food restaurant, finds a modeling agent in Lucinda and becomes an international success. But with no papers, she is forced to enter into an unhappy marriage with odd-job man Neil or be sent back to war-torn Somalia. And now she joins the United Nations to enlighten the people about the female circumcision and stop that sort of practice.


The book has developed my understanding that FGM is not ubiquitous in Africa, in fact, most Africans don't even know that it's there. It is just concentrated mainly in East African countries like Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Djibouti, and some areas in West Africa like Mali for example. Besides, the practice of female circumcision or FGM is not well-understood by Europeans and Americans. Through Waris’s experiences , women are the backbone of Africa; they do most of the work but they are powerless to make decisions and have no say, sometimes not even in whom they will marry. This fact helps me as a woman to be thankful of the rights and freedoms I have today. Perhaps my life would be different if I was born in a different country with different cultures.