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These various topics presented to our group surrounding experiences, while centered around different concepts, share a deep connection through the exploration of how societal structures and traditions can profoundly shape, restrain, and sometimes harm individuals, especially those from marginalized groups. Whether through forced cultural practices or oppressive cultural values imposed on an individual, these stories reflect the tension between personal identity and external forces that try to define or limit it, therefore rooting certain values in ourselves that change forever our perceptions and experiences.

Waris Dirie’s story is a powerful example of it. Her life, shaped by the brutal and inhumane practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), overlapped by traditions of her Somali upbringing, reflects how societal norms can control and limit not only a person, but more specifically, women. Waris's escape from forced marriage and FGM, only to face new challenges as an immigrant in the Western world, highlights the ongoing struggle many individuals face as they try to break free from harmful traditions. In her case, fleeing Somalia was only the beginning of her journey. She soon encountered discrimination and exploitation common to many immigrants, highlighting how these forms of persecution might change certain approaches to one’s life.

For Waris, FGM was a devastating “rite of passage” and also a physical and emotional trauma that shaped her life in destructive ways that, however, shaped her personal growth in a new society. Said society, the Western context, forced her to accept certain roles and expectations, as her life up until that point had been rooted in values foreign to those in England, giving space to discrimination and persecution as a migrant.

Relating these various concepts (life stories, rites of passage, migration, and traditions) shows how personal identities are often in constant negotiation with societal norms. Waris Dirie’s trajectory from a Somali girl subjected to FGM to an international model and activist illustrates how individuals can challenge, escape, and even transform the oppressive systems they were born into. Her life story, her modeling career, had been a mean of survival that eventually lead to her role as an activist against FGM, showing how this traumatic experience changed her irreversibly. One’s background, thus, has an effect on our future selves, or at least it did for Waris. Her experiences were based on who she was, and her identity and sense of self had been forged by her tribe’s costumes, which involved the harmful procedure of FGM, and what she undergoes as a migrant. All of that forms her life story, one that no one else could possibly understand, with the same bias as Waris, not having gone through the same things.

In essence, these constructs presented separately to our group are unified by their how societal norms can shape an individual's life, often in harmful or restrictive ways, no matter the justifications for those. However, they also reflect the resilience and strength individuals show in challenging these norms, whether through activism, as in the case of Waris Dirie, or through the simple act of surviving and carving out a space of dignity in the face of prejudice and oppression. Waris did such a thing by challeging the mere principles of the values she had been taught to believe, such as FGM being a rite of passage that determined her value as a pure woman, therefore a good woman, or the xenophobia experienced in England, which she didn't allow to change her mindset into believing herself to be inferior. Her life story was heavily dependent on what she went through throughout her trajectory, on how experiences shaped her into believing — or not — on certain things or following certain traditions.

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To the extent Warris gets in touch with a different culture from her native country, her values shift, as she grows as a person. Somalia's cultural beliefs clash with the British beliefs, especially regarding how women are perceived in relation to their bodies. To us, there are no cultures better than others, however, certain values and beliefs violate the human rights, an example is the practice of FGM, as seen on the movie. It is a common thought to believe that the western world respects women's rights more, but they in fact they disrespect as well. One of the most famous cases has to do with the movie producer Harvey Weinstein, who after being professionally investigated, was found accountable of several sexual harassment crimes from different women (including celebrities) led him to prison. The stories surrounding Weinstein crimes, made the #MeToo movement emerge and  break the system of silence and media hiding the truth.

Every society has somewhat, "core" principles that exclude a specific group of individuals, nevertheless, they must change in order to establish a more equal community for all. The case of Warris is that in Somalia she was submited to many situations that are seen as desumanities by the rest of the world, what happened is that Warris was raised to be a traditional Somalian women, so she was opresed by expectations all the time, but more that, she suffered FGM and other abuses, that have shaped her personality. When in contact with the Eastern culture in London she realize that the world was different from Somalia, allowing to discover a new way of living, being proud of her body, personality and nationaly, that is, she was able to absorve new values and find herself in a new society, where doing surgeries and taking out the clothes to take fotos is something normal. Desert Flower explores themes of identity, what it means to be human, and the connection between health and well-being. Waris Dirie’s journey touches on self-discovery and the reclaiming of bodily autonomy. Her experience with female genital mutilation (FGM) illustrates how trauma affects not just the body, but formation of one’s identity, making her quest for healing a deeply human pursuit. The film challenges traditional views of health, showing that true well-being is more than physical, because it involves emotional and mental integrity. The movie also highlights how health and human dignity are related, what make us to think what means to live a “healthy life” by exploring human freedom and self-expression.

An example of that is on the east the practice of FGM where not only was something that a girl could bleed to death and the chances of going wrong wore pretty high but they would feel ashamed of their own body, the fact that they would lose the control from their own body is something that inhuman someone because their husbands would be the owners. In contrast on the western the religious think that a girl needs to remain a virgin until their marriage even though is something that is more accepted now a days is still something that remains on our unconscious being judged on their actions, something that damage their mental health dehumanizing their body and choices.