Our campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM) sets new standards
Waris Dirie (r.) during her interviews in London.
Our "EndFGM" campaign has been online since Friday (8 March, International Women's Day). The media response was enormous. Over 300 newspapers and magazines have reported on Waris Dirie's new challenge to the cruel practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). And once in motion, Waris is unstoppable. In London, she now ran a real interview marathon to get more attention for our campaign.
From CNN, BBC, SKY NEWS to Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone Magazine, Icon Magazine and El Pais, the bandwidth was wide enough - Waris was the talk of choice in London. And excited at the same time. But that's exactly what it's about. Waris Dirie and her Desert Flower Foundation team want to shake up the world.
"FGM is a heinous crime against children and women," she makes clear. "I'm angry when I'm honest. It's sad and tragic that the world still doesn't care. It's painful that nobody cares just because it's a women's problem and somewhere else in the world. But that's not true, because FGM is among us. Not only in Africa and Asia, but also here in the middle of Europe."
The aim of the global campaign, for which we have teamed up with British luxury lingerie label Coco de Mer and star photographer Rankin, is to collect ten million signatures to put pressure on governments, politicians and international organisations.
