The author of Desert Flower, and female genital mutilation (FGM) opponent Waris Dirie, who was missing for three days, has been found safe and sound. Having grown up as a nomad in the desert of Somalia, Dirie modeled for Chanel, acted in the James Bond film The Living Daylights and then became an outspoken opponent of FGM, which kills hundreds of girls and women each year. Unfortunately, it’s a subject with which Dirie is very familiar, as she describes in her best seller book Desert Flower, which is what Waris means. When she was 5, her mother held her down as another woman cut off her genitals with a dirty razor blade and then stitched them together. There was no anesthesia. Dirie ran away from home at age 13 to escape an arranged marriage to a 61 year old man and went to London, where she worked as a cleaning lady in McDonald’s. In a Cinderella-like fairy tale, Dirie was discovered by photographer Terence Donovan. But despite her success, Dirie was never able to escape the trauma of her past. She says on her website that she had as many operations as possible to undo the mutilation and says her urinating and menstruating has become less painful. But she remains in emotional and physical pain.

In 1997, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. Ten years later her activism around FGM earned her a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. And somehow Dirie found the time to write two more books, Desert Dawn and Desert Children and A Letter To My Mother.

It is unclear where Dirie was during the time she vanished. But she disappeared and was found in Brussels where she had gone as a U.N. goodwill ambassador to attend a European Union conference, which Condoleeza Rice attended, and speak about FGM. Dirie was going to push the European governments to do more to combat genital mutilation. As she said in an AP interview last year “We can give no more excuses for this…. This is a pure crime against a child. And we are doing it … not God or nature.” Dirie has also pushed Bob Geldof to do more about FGM, and has gotten Catherine DeNeuve to support the campaign. Dirie also convinced the lead prosecutor of the International Court to investigate claims that political parties in Sierra Leon are offering free FGM.

Sadly, it was only last week that another African-born former model and FGM opponent, Guinean-born Katoucha Niane, was found dead in the River Seine.

So ! Visit Waris Dirie Foundation’s website and sign Dirie’s manifesto against genital mutilation. Watch Dirie talk about her campaign on TV.