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Ex-supermodel opens help center for female genital mutilation victims
Ex-supermodel opens help center for female genital mutilation victims
Somali-born activist and former supermodel Waris Dirie on Wednesday opens a centre in Germany to treat victims of female genital mutilation, which she was subjected to as a child.
About 8,000 young girls are circumcised every day in Africa and the Middle East, and the Desert Flower Medical Center, located in a Berlin hospital, will offer reconstructive surgery and psychological help to those among the 50,000 girls and women in Germany who need it.
The centre is a pilot for others planned in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Dirie’s genitals were mutilated as a Somali nomads’ daughter at about age four, a fate she recalled in her bestselling autobiography “Desert Flower”, which was turned into a 2009 movie.
“Female genital mutilation has nothing to do with religion, culture or tradition. It is a crime against innocent girls” that must be punished, Dirie, the 48-year-old patron of the centre, was quoted as telling Berlin daily the Tagesspiegel.
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Full article here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/11/ex-supermodel-opens-help-center-for-female-genital-mutilation-victims/
