A woman who achieves stardom against all odds uses her celebrity to make a difference in the land she left behind in this drama based on a true story. Waris Dirie was born in Somalia, where she was one of a dozen children raised by a family of travelers. Waris grew up poor, and at the age of five, like many girls in East Africa, she was the victim of genital mutilation, a practice performed by Muslims in the belief it will insure that the girls will remain “true virgins.”