UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND AMBASSADOR NAMED WOMAN OF THE YEAR
Press Release
POP/689
UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND AMBASSADOR NAMED WOMAN OF THE YEAR
19981112 NEW YORK, 11 November (UNFPA) - United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Special Ambassador Waris Dirie has been named "Woman of the Year" by Glamour magazine.Ms. Dirie, activist and supermodel, is a Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation for the UNFPA.
Ms. Dirie has been nominated by Glamour "for her extraordinary work speaking out against genital mutilation". Former winners include the United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Widely practised in many countries in Africa and the Middle East, female genital mutilation involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female organs for cultural or other non- therapeutic reasons.
As a Special Ambassador, Ms. Dirie has been speaking out against the practice and lending support to the Population Fund and national programmes that seek to eradicate female genital mutilation. She has made public service announcements and video news releases on the subject for the Fund.
"Because women and girls are not valued equally as human beings, they are treated as less than such", said Ms. Dirie, adding "female genital mutilation is one example of this that has to be stopped".
A native of Somalia, born into a nomadic family, Ms. Dirie survived the traditional form of female genital mutilation that kills hundreds of women every year -- a younger sister and two cousins died from the procedure.
At age 13, just before she was to be married off to an elderly man, she ran away from home. Eventually she found her way to London. After achieving international success as a fashion model, she decided to tell the public of her ordeal and to dedicate her life to ending female genital mutilation and improving the status of women.
The Glamour award was presented yesterday, 11 November, in New York. The awards ceremony will be celebrated in the December issue of Glamour magazine.
- 2 - Press Release POP/689 12 November 1998
Ms. Dirie's work is part of an international advocacy campaign called "Face to Face". Its goal is to stimulate awareness of and support for gender equality and reproductive choice, especially for women in developing countries.
The advocacy campaign is implemented by an alliance of European non- governmental organizations, as well as by international organizations such as the Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
The alliance has the common aim of sensitizing the public to the need for universal access to reproductive heath care, reproductive rights, the empowerment of women and to end harmful practices such as gender discrimination and female genital mutilation. Another objective of the campaign is to ensure that population assistance for developing countries is forthcoming from industrial nations.
For more information on female genital mutilation, Waris Dirie and the work of the UNFPA, please visit our Website .
For editorial information please contact the UNFPA -- Corrie Shanahan, telephone: 212-297-5023, E-mail shanahan@unfpa.org; or Jesper Jensen, telephone: 212-297-5040, E-mail: jensen@unfpa.org.
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