Ismahaan Posted March 12, 2008 Waris Dirie (a 43 year-old naturalized Australian) , the former supermodel and James Bond girl turned United Nations women's rights ambassador, has claimed she was kidnapped and assaulted during a three day period she went missing in Brussels last week. Miss Dirie was admitted to hospital, in her hometown of Vienna, with an arm injury and abrasions to her legs. Gerald Ganzger, her lawyer, alleged the injuries had been inflicted by a Belgian taxi driver who abducted and attempted to rape her while holding her hostage in his flat for two days. Dirie's disappearance comes 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. web page Saturday, March 08, 2008 By Raymond Frenken BRUSSELS (EUX.TV) -- Somali-born author and United Nations goodwill ambassador on Saturday apologized for her disappearence earlier this week in Brussels that led to a three-day search by Belgian authorities. Dirie, a 43-year old former model who now actively campaigns against female genital mutiliation, disappeared Tuesday in Brussels. She was in town to attend two conferences on women's rights, one of which included US State Secretary Condoleeza Rice. Dirie was to travel to Kerkrade, the Netherlands, later in the week where she was to receive the 2007 Martin Buber award. She however did not attend the ceremony. See earlier story. On Friday afternoon, it became clear that she was nog longer missing. According to news reports, Dirie went to a night club Tuesday evening and then was unable to find her Sofitel hotel. Brussels hosts at least two hotels of this chain. In the end Dirie, was found on Friday walking on Brussels' Grand Place square, according to a Belgian radio report. "She only said she wondered around town for three days. She says she slept in hotel lobby's because she had no money for a room," a Brussels police spokesman said, according to the ANP news agency. Just last week in Paris, police retrieved the body of another former model, Katoucha Niane, from the Seine river. Niane had written a book about her own experience with female mutilation in Africa. The cause of her death has yet to be established. Few details available During a press conference on Saturday, Dirie offered her apology but declined to give further details. Dirie, author of the best-seller 'Desert Flower', shocked readers worldwide with her story that told how her genitals were cut off with a razor blade without anesthesia when she lived as a little girl in Somalia. Dirie now is an Austrian citizen. In 2004, she was attacked near her home in Vienna by a stalker. An Austrian court later gave the man a five-month suspended sentence. Dirie was awarded the 2007 Martin Buber award for her efforts to improve the lives of children in Africa and Europe. She is the first woman to receive the German-Dutch-Belgian prize, named after the Austrian philosopher. The Martin Buber prize this year is awarded for the sixth consecutive year by the Euriade association, an international cultural and philosophic organisation inspired by Buber's 'I and thou' thinking. Euriade announced last month that the 2008 award will be given in November of this year to former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachov and his daughter Michailovna Virganskaya. Source: EUX.TV I wonder what happen to her, she declined to give further details, saying it was unclear what had happened since she vanished early Wednesday. She also apologised for a "misunderstanding" and said she was "lost". :rolleyes: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cynical lady Posted March 12, 2008 "Dirie's disappearance comes 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" First class journalism :rolleyes: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ismahaan Posted March 12, 2008 Originally posted by cynical lady: "Dirie's disappearance comes 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" First class journalism :rolleyes: What do you think, was she abducted and raped? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ismahaan Posted March 12, 2008 The Many Faces of waris diriye, she says Belgian police treated her like 'prostitute'.The whole history sounds really really fishy but I'm very curious to know what happened! Somali model says Belgian police treated her like 'prostitute': reports AFP - Tuesday, March 11 03:48 pm BRUSSELS (AFP) - Belgian police on Tuesday rejected accusations from Somali-born model and human rights campaigner Waris Dirie, who briefly went missing last week, that they treated her like a prostitute. (Advertisement) Dirie, a UN ambassador in the campaign against female genital mutilation, said police threatened to put her in jail when she asked for help to find her hotel after leaving a nightclub, Austria's Kurier daily reported Tuesday. "They treated me like a prostitute," the naturalised Austrian was reported to have said in comments filmed as part of a documentary being made about her. She also said her requests for help at two police stations were ignored "because of the colour of her skin," another Austrian daily said. She is currently hospitalised in Vienna. A Brussels police spokesman rejected the accusations outright. "It's completely false," spokesman Christian De Coninck told AFP. "When she says she was treated like a prostitute, it's false. When she says she was not well treated because she is black, it is false." "She missed several important meetings, including with (US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice. I think she is looking to justify herself, because to admit that you missed them because you were out and about doesn't look very good," he added. The 43-year-old former model went missing in the early hours of Wednesday after getting into a taxi outside a hotel in the Belgian capital. A spokesman for the local prosecutor's office said she had been found in Brussels on Friday afternoon. Dirie's lawyer on Monday said she was held captive for two days by the driver of a taxi she had ridden in, and that the man also attempted to rape her. He released her after two days, according to the lawyer. That account differed from an earlier version Dirie provided to authorities. Belgian prosecutors said Saturday that she was simply lost in the city and slept in hotel lobbies because she did not have money to pay for a room. She had not notified Belgian authorities of what happened because she did not want to speak about it and was in a state of shock, her representatives have said. The Brussels police spokesman said that a patrol car had driven her from hotel to hotel in search of her room. "It's quite a regular thing that we look after a tourist lost in Brussels," he said, adding that there was no evidence she was threatened by the man she was found with, who has since identified himself as a local window cleaner. Dirie had been expected in Kerkrade, the Netherlands, last week to receive the Euriade Foundation prize. She was also due to take part in a conference in Brussels to mark International Women's Day which Rice also attended. In addition to modelling work, Dirie was known for writing four books of memoirs and she had a minor role in the 1987 James Bond movie, "The Living Daylights." source Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
