BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 7, 2008
Missing Model Found Alive In Belgium
Waris Dirie's Disappearance Had Fueled Speculation As Fellow Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Campaigner Was Found Dead
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Waris Dirie smiles after receiving the "Prix des Generations" award of the World Demographic Association, on the last day of the 3rd World Ageing & Generations Congress in St. Gallen, Switzerland, Saturday, Sept. 8, 2007. (AP PHOTO)
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Model Katoucha Niane sports a Picasso-inspired long dress during French legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent's farewell show Jan. 22, 2002. Niane had been missing since January, but her body was found in the River Seine recently. (AP)
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Dirie was found hours after police announced a nationwide search for Dirie Friday. She was last seen getting into a cab after a mix-up over a hotel in the early hours of Wednesday.
Arpigny said Dirie was being questioned by police about the disappearance and appeared to be in good health.
Dirie, who was born in Somalia and now lives in Vienna, Austria gained international fame as a model posing in Chanel ads and acting in the James Bond film "The Living Daylights" before launching her campaign against female genital mutilation in 1996.Photos: Europe's Missing Models
She recounted her own experiences of suffering genital mutilation as a child in the book "Desert Flower," which became an international best-seller.
She wrote three sequels, "Desert Dawn," "Desert Children" and "Nomad's Daughter," and served as a U.N. goodwill ambassador to fight the practice.
"There are millions of children - young, hopeless, desperate - who need help, a voice, somebody, somewhere," she told The Associated Press in a 2005 interview.
Dirie was due to speak to two conferences on women's rights organized by the European Union in Brussels this week, including one Thursday attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Dirie's disappearance came a week after French police said they'd found the body of another former model of African origin who had campaigned against female genital mutilation.
Dirie's manager, Walter Lutschinger, said in a telephone interview that his client had been involved in an altercation in a hotel reception after a taxi driver had taken her to the wrong branch of the Sofitel hotel chain after a visit to a night club. The police were called and drove Dirie around Brussels looking for the correct hotel, after she had she apparently forgotten where she was staying.
At one hotel, while staff and police were checking for her name on a computer, Dirie walked out and climbed into a taxi that drove away, Lutschinger said police told him.
He said hotel staff told him Dirie had said she was going to buy cigarettes before getting into the vehicle.
Lutschinger said he thought she was carrying little money and no identification documents or cell phone when she vanished.
EU officials said they had expressed concern when she did not show up Thursday at the conference and had been in touch with the police.
Dirie was due to travel to the Netherlands to receive an award for her campaigning Friday in the town of Kerkrade.
By Paul Ames © MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- How does someone as UGLY as her become a model?
Posted by DylanXXV
Sorry but she is BUTT UGLY!!!!!
Posted by tpabucgirl
How does anyone as ignorant as you make it through a single day of living in an adult world? Maggots like you have no clue at all as to human worth or beauty. Slither on back to your trailers. - Reply to this comment
- How does someone as UGLY as her become a model?
Posted by DylanXXV
Sorry but she is BUTT UGLY!!!!!
Posted by tpabucgirl
How does anyone as ignorant as you make it through a single day of living in an adult world? Maggots like you have no clue at all as to human worth or beauty. Slither on back to your trailers. - Reply to this comment
- Have any of you actually read this article? Whether or not you think she is attractive has nothing to do with the point of this story. Any woman who brings awareness to this atrocity should be commended. Thankfully she was found. Your insecurities are magnified by your ignorance.
- Reply to this comment
- She''s no Iman. Modeling goes through cycles & phases. One year it''s Asian women. Next year Black women. Then blondes. Then something else. Everything comes & goes. Sometimes it''s more important for the model to have an unusual look that makes her stand out from the crowd than to be traditionally pretty. They want you to stop & look at the ad when you''re flipping through the magazine. A lot of pretty blonde clones in the world.
- Reply to this comment
- How does someone as UGLY as her become a model?
- Reply to this comment
- Sorry but she is BUTT UGLY!!!!!
Posted by tpabucgirl
Yeah, she''s a supermodel because she is butt ugle. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nobody see''s what your bringing to the party!!! - Reply to this comment
- Thank Gods that tpabutgirl and Dylan aren''t modeling agents.
- Reply to this comment
- Sorry but she is BUTT UGLY!!!!!
- Reply to this comment
- she is not buttugly dylanxxv!!
- Reply to this comment
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