Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad is an autobiographical book written by Waris Dirie and Cathleen Miller,[1] published in 1998 about the life of Somali model, Waris Dirie.
Despite suffering female genital mutilation (FGM) at the age of five, and its life-long consequences, Waris Dirie escaped from her native Galkayo, Somalia, fleeing to Mogadishu to escape an arranged marriage. Moving with relatives to London, she worked for a while at a McDonald's and was discovered by chance by fashion photographer Terence Donovan. She continued via modelling in film and fashion to a stage where she was considered a supermodel. It was at this point that, with Miller, she wrote this autobiography. Shortly afterwards she became a UN ambassador for the abolition of FGM.[1][2]
In 2009, the book was adapted into a film of the same name. Produced by Peter Herrmann and Benjamin Herrmann, the Ethiopian supermodel Liya Kebede plays Waris in the title role.[3]