you definitely outfoxed him. 0h, idid. what got you to london was a family connection. yes. ..and you had an uncle who was actually ambassador for somalia in london. harley street, right here. yeah. and he offered you a job, to go with him to london as a sort of maid/cleaner. you took it. and as a teenager in london, you were able, then, to stay. even when he returned, you did menialjobs. i think you worked in fast food and in cleaning. yeah, all the. a few fast food places. couldn t speak the language, couldn t read or write, had no one i could run to stay with. but at the same time, i felt the most freedom ever. i felt so free. ifelt i could do and be anything. i wasn t worried at all. and almost always, that feeling of i can do anything is a little bit of a cliche and doesn t come true. but for you, the extraordinary happened. you think it s cliche, but it s. it s really the truth.
even half of women and more who still appear to be supportive of continuation of fgm. yes. that s a huge hurdle to overcome. it is.no, it s not. no, baby, ican t, no, no, no, no. because it s, i mean. from 28 countries to four countries, 0k, it took a little while. and, although even those countries have the law against this and criminalise but they do not really criminalise women. here, england, london, there was a law against fgm since 1985. and the first ever person prosecuted was, what, a few years ago, two years? so, law is a law, it s another thing. but practise and following the law, and respecting the law is another. there is an argument and maybe this is relevant to your situation because you were born in somalia,
you were still this young girl who had internalised so much trauma in somalia. how did the two things fit together? see, that s the thing. i can sit here and really say i am gratefulfor where i was born, and how my life was. and i tell you. ..the respect, the knowledge, the passion i have for life, i don t think i would have that if i was born, let s say, right here in london. and there is something that no matter what, you know, what you go through in life, you learn something each each step, you learn something new in life. and some you appreciate, and some you move on from it.
that much of an effort, because it s. .. but it does take something called luck. and you had luck. i had well, then, you can call me, all my life, a luck, which i tell people, my middle name is luck. and i do not know how i sometimes i was walking down this morning in the street, and i know every corner of the streets. and i m, you know, thinking back and i m just smiling, remembering those days. it s interesting because london, in a sense, made you, certainly made you as one of the world s most famous, most wanted models. you got spotted by a photographer. again, luck. he handed pictures to a modelling agency, who loved your look. and before you knew it, while i think you were still in your late teen age, you were being. i was just a little girl, young girl, yeah. yeah, you were being taken to paris, to new york. before long, you were the face of chanel, you were modelling on the catwalks. and i m also mindful that
was a family connection. yes. ..and you had an uncle who was actually ambassador for somalia in london. harley street, right here. yeah. and he offered you a job, to go with him to london as a sort of maid/cleaner. you took it. and as a teenager in london, you were able, then, to stay. even when he returned, you did menialjobs. i think you worked in fast food and in cleaning. yeah, all the. a few fast food places. couldn t speak the language, couldn t read or write, had no one i could run to stay with. but at the same time, i felt the most freedom ever. i felt so free. ifelt i could do and be anything. i wasn t worried at all. and almost always, that feeling of i can do anything is a little bit of a cliche and doesn t come true. but for you, the extraordinary happened. you think it s cliche, but it s. it s really the truth. anything you want to do, you really. mean that much to you. i don t think it takes