Another Model Who Spoke Out Against Genital Mutilation Goes Missing (Update) She's been Found

Anyone detect a pattern here?

Waris Dirie, a former model who has campaigned against female genital mutilation and written an international best-seller about her experiences, is missing, her manager said Friday.

Dirie, 43, has not been seen since early Wednesday when police saw her getting into a taxi in Brussels after a mix-up over a hotel room, manager Walter Lutschinger said in a telephone interview.

"We are really very scared," said Lutschinger, who has been her manager for seven years.

Dirie — who was born in Somalia and now lives in Vienna, Austria — gained international fame as a model posing in Chanel ads and acting in a James Bond film before launching her campaign against female genital mutilation in 1996.

She recounted her own experiences of suffering genital mutilation as a child in the book Desert Flower, which became an international best-seller.

Dirie was due to speak to two conferences on women's rights organized by the European Union in Brussels this week, including one Thursday attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Dirie's disappearance comes a week after French police said they'd found the body of another former model of African origin who had campaigned against female genital mutilation.

Guinean-born Katoucha Niane's body was found floating in the Seine River in Paris. French police said an autopsy showed no signs of foul play, pointing to the possibility that the 47-year-old Niane may have fallen accidentally into the river.

Lutschinger said Dirie had been involved in an altercation in a hotel reception after a taxi driver had taken her to the wrong branch of the Sofitel hotel chain after a visit to a night club. The police were called and drove Dirie around Brussels looking for the correct hotel, after she had she apparently forgotten where she was staying.

At one hotel, while staff and police were checking for her name on a computer, Dirie walked out and climbed into a taxi that drove away, Lutschinger said police told him.

He said hotel staff told him Dirie had said she was going to buy cigarettes before getting into the vehicle.

Lutschinger said he thought she was carrying little money and no identification documents or cell phone when she vanished.

EU officials said they had expressed concern when she did not show up Thursday at the conference and had been in touch with the police, but had not had any news of Dirie's whereabouts.

Dirie's description of how she underwent genital mutilation without anesthesia as a child shocked those who knew her from glossy fashion magazine covers, Chanel perfume ads and her role in The Living Daylights, a 1987 James Bond film.

H/T Writer Mom.

See the Waris Dirie Foundation.

Reuters account here.

Update: Lawhawk and Jihad Watch have more.

Update II: Good news. She's been found.