News - Desert Flower Foundation

The first prosecution of FGM in Australia

“Much ado about nothing…”

FGM is a cruel crime agianst innocent girls

After a teacher in New South Wales had reported to the police a suspicion of FGM committed on two of her pupils complaining about abdominal pains, inspectors intervened swiftly.

An interview with both sisters revealed that their parents arranged this cruel ritual together with Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri, a circumciser known as KM in the Dawoodi Bohra Shia Muslim community when each of them was seven years old.

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Desert Flower Foundation in Sierra Leone

"Not everyone can flee to Europe"

Interview with Wuyatta Genda

Wuyatta Genda is in charge of the Desert Flower Foundation office in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

DFF: You head the DFF office in Sierra Leone since the start of the “Save a little Desert Flower” project in 2014. How did you join this project?

WG: I have worked for Fr. Peter Konteh who is the president of Caritas in Sierra Leone. He told me about your great Foundation and asked me if I would like to participate in its work here. I agreed immediately, because FGM has to be eradicated in Sierra Leone.

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The Waris Dirie Manifesto

15 goals in our fight against FGM

Waris Dirie demands specific steps in the fight against FGM

I would like to remind you of the manifesto I published together with my team in 2005.

"You will not see the whole picture unless you step out of the frame", writes Salman Rushdie in The Ground Beneath her Feet.

It is time to step out of the frame.

more The Waris Dirie Manifesto

Thank-you letter from Freetown

We don’t have to starve anymore!

Dear Desert Flower Foundation,

My three-year-old daughter Sallay just became a little Desert Flower.

Since I sell fruits at the local market I have to go to work very early every day. And so does Sallay´s father, who is a taxi driver. We can’t bring her to nursery ourselves.

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Strengthen and empower African women!

Waris Dirie: appeal to national governments

Waris with participants of the initiative “Together for African Women”

I have been urging national governments supporting Africa for years to give billions of dollars directly to women's initiatives ensuring them access to career development, continuing education and vocational training instead of financing corrupt governments.

more Strengthen and empower African women!