Waris Dirie went missing for two days in Brussels, Belgium. When
she was found Friday, March 7, the 43-year-old ex-model and crusader
against genital mutilation told authorities that she had simply gotten
lost in the city.
Dirie said she was wandering around for days, not able to find her
way due to
her inability to speak French. Her manager, Walter
Lutschinger, had chalked the bizarre disappearance up to
"misunderstandings."
She originally thanked Belgians for their kindness in helping her through the ordeal and apologized for causing a media ruckus.
"I never would have imagined causing all this," Dirie said of the alarm her disappearance caused.
A terrifying taxi ride
Dirie had last been seen getting into a taxi in the early hours of
Wednesday.
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A taxi ride from hell
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Dirie's attorney and manager told the Austrian news agency
APA Sunday evening that the taxi driver kidnapped Dirie and tried to
rape her, injuring her shoulder and leaving scratch marks on her legs.
The taxi driver allegedly took Dirie home to his apartment in the
outskirts of Brussels and then refused to let her leave and tried to
sexually assault her. She was kept in the house for the next two days
until the taxi driver brought her back into the city Friday afternoon.
Dirie is a naturalized Austrian citizen and a United Nations ambassador in the campaign against female genital mutilation.
Ordeal left her "in shock"
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Dirie was supposed to attend a conference in Brussels
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She did not tell the Belgian police what happened.
"I think that she was simply in extreme shock," Lutschinger said Sunday evening in Vienna.
Dirie had been expected in Kerkrade, the Netherlands, on Friday to
receive the Euriade Foundation prize. She had also planned to take part
in a conference on female circumcision being held in Brussels Saturday
as part of International Women's Day.
In addition to modeling work, Dirie became known for writing four
books of memoirs and had a minor role in the 1987 James Bond movie "The
Living Daylights."
SOURCE: Deutsche Welle, March 10, 2008