Desert Flower

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Waris!

Old Man!

Mom says, we have to move on.

Her name is Fattuma.

You can't|call a sheep like Allah's daughter.

Says who?

Waris,|I don't want anything to separate us.

I'll never leave you alone!|Promise!

LONDON, YEARS LATER

I have nowhere else to go!|I can't go back to Somalia!

Aren't you ashamed?|Showing this white man your body ?

Our tradition is of no concern to them.

If you change what you are,|then you are betraying your parents,

your people and your heritage.

Does your mother know what you are|about to do? Shame on you!

Mommy, I am bleeding down there.

Good, it means

you are a woman now!

It's terribly painful.

All pain will pass.

Waris, this is Galool Mohammed.

Come closer my dear, come closer.

Do you like my watch?

Waris, You will marry him

to be his fourth wife.

I arranged the wedding for tomorrow.

Mom, I will not marry him!

Galool Mohammed paid a lot for you.|You can't say no.

Where are you going?|- To grandmother.

Mogadishu! It's far away!|I come with you!

No! They need you here, little brother!

Don't worry!|In the city I earn lots of money

and then I come back to get you!

Mommy.

Mogadishu?

Yes. Hurry up.

Shut up!

Mommy!

I said shut up!

Where is the mosque?

Over there.

Mother, see what comes of|living with goats and sheep!

We can't afford to keep her.|She has to go back home!

A girl who dares the long journey|through the desert has a good reason.

She blamed our family!|- Enough! Go back to work!

A miracle you survived!

It was Allah's will.

You have the same lips as your mother.|I always called her Afyareh.

Grandma, why have we never seen you?

Because your mother ran away|through the desert to marry your father.

A man we did not approve|because he was nothing but a nomad.

I wonder if it made her happy.|All that pain must be worth something.

Your father beats your mother,|because she let you go.

But mothers never stop|loving their daughters.

Your father will never forgive you.|But you can't stay with us.

I can't go back home, grandmother.

Marium, a sister of your mother,

is the wife|of the Somali ambassador in London.

She s looking for a maid.

It's Allah's will that you move on.

There will be war in Somalia.|In Europe you are safe.

Don't come back.

They will try to change you there.

Never forget where you come from.

Here is your passport.

It tells people who you are.|Without it you are no one.

May Allah protect you, Afyareh.

Go in peace.

There s a Coup d'Etat in Somalia!

|The president is deposed.

The embassy staff has been recalled!|Waris, pack your belongings!

I can't go back!

UN HEADQUARTER, NEW YORK

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