Watch Desert Flower

Many times we hear of the different ordeals that people from different cultures face around the world but we never actually see their stories. Desert love is one such story that tells of a woman who at a young age decided to fight against extremists. Desert Love is based on a true story of how a young girl remains true to her roots and uses her influence to effect change in her homeland. Waris Dirie had the unfortunate luck of being born a girl in a land where extremist rule and women are considered commodities that can be bought and sold. She was raised by a group of nomads in Somalia along with other poor children. At age five ever girl is expected to pass through a right of passage called female circumcision. This practice of mutilation is required by religious laws as a means to ensure that all young girls remain virgins until marriage.

At the age of 13 Waris was sold by her family to an elderly man. She eventually escaped from his tyrannical treatment and in a new twist Waris is now settled in London where she begins to work to sustain herself while attending school.One day while at work photographer Terry Donaldson played by Timothy Spall spotted her.

Convinced that Waris had what was necessary to become a professional model he took her on and with the help of Lucinda an agent played by Juliet Stevenson Waris was on her way to making a name for herself in high fashion and modelling. As her success grew the dark shadows of her past continued to haunt her as many saw her for her sex appeal. The mutilations which she experienced earlier on in her youth totally prevented her from enjoying sex, she uses her new fame to lobby against the barbaric act of genital mutilation that is still practiced on many young girls in Muslim and third world countries.

Desert Flower is a 2009 drama with a runtime of 2 hours. It has received moderate reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 7.3 and a MetaScore of 54.