She has won numerous awards recognizing her work on eradicating FGM, including the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (2007).

She has created a platform for raising awareness about FGM that includes numerous foundations, campaigns, books, and documentaries.

[1] After the rape took place, Dirie underwent an infibulation procedure to remove her labia and suture her vulva, following cultural ideals of purity (taharah) and shame (ebwaye).

After her uncle's four-year term, Dirie left and lived in a number of unstable housing arrangements, later renting a room in a YMCA.

[3][4] Aged 18, Dirie was by chance discovered by photographer Mike Goss, as she stood waiting for her charge outside of his daughter's school.

Over time, she incorporated her legs into her identity, coming to see them as an identifier of her nomadic history and of her African heritage.

She also appeared on the runways of London, Milan, Paris and New York City, and in fashion magazines such as Elle, Glamour and Vogue.

[3][4] After experiencing painful menstruation, Dirie sought the advice of several doctors, but she declined to speak about the female genital mutilation that she had endured as a child.

[6] In 1997, at the height of her modeling career, Dirie spoke for the first time with Laura Ziv of the women's magazine Marie Claire about the FGM that she had undergone as a child,[3][4] at the age of five along with her two sisters.

[9] In 1998, Dirie coauthored her first book along with nonfiction author Cathleen Miller:[10] Desert Flower, an autobiography that went on to become an international bestseller.

In 2007, the Arab channel Al Jazeera invited Waris Dirie to the popular talk show by Riz Khan.

She spoke for the first time on an Arab channel in front of over 100 million viewers about the taboo topic "Female Genital Mutilation".

In 2002 Dirie founded the Desert Flower Foundation in Vienna, an organisation whose goal is to eradicate female genital mutilation worldwide.

"Together for African Women" followed in 2011, a collaboration with the Hamburg agency Jung von Matt and the laundry label Mey.

In March 2019 came the much-acclaimed campaign "End FGM" with the British lingerie label Coco de Mer.

[31] Diries Desert Flower Foundation is also building a "Safe House", where FGM victims find refuge and protection.

In addition, 10,000 copies of Waris Dirie's reading book "My Africa - The Journey" with Desert Flower educational boxes will be distributed to 34 schools in Sierra Leone.

In her book Desert Flower, Dirie states that Iman's mother was good friends with her aunt, a relative with whom she once lived during her time in London.

A 26-year-old Portuguese man was held in custody after having apparently stalked her 1,000 miles across Europe, eventually gaining access to her apartment by climbing through a neighbour's window.

It was reported that the suspect had met Dirie six months earlier when his brother was working at her previous residence in Wales.

[50] On 7 March 2019, in the presence of Waris Dirie, it was announced at a press conference at a theatre St. Gallen, Switzerland that her extraordinary life story would become a musical.