A former supermodel/Bond girl who had gone missing for three days has been found. Waris Dirie, 43, is a Somali-born model who rose to fame in 1987 playing a Bond girl in “The Living Daylights” and starring in several Chanel ads. In 1996 she released a book “Desert Flower” that described her own circumcision with a rusty razor blade and no anesthesia. Since then Dirie has become a vocal advocate against female genital mutilation. She had been scheduled to deliver a speech in front of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Brussels at two women’s rights conferences when she suddenly went missing. Last week the body of Katoucha Niane, a Guinean-born model turned female genital mutilation activist was found floating in the River Seine in Paris – heightening fears for Dirie’s safety. The cause of her disappearance is still unclear, confusing, and suspicious.

Dirie’s manager, Walter Lutschinger, said the 43-year-old former model had been involved in an altercation early Wednesday after a taxi driver took her to the wrong branch of the Sofitel hotel chain. The police were called and drove Dirie around Brussels looking for the correct hotel because she had apparently forgotten where she was staying.

At one hotel, while staff and police were checking for her name on a computer, police said Dirie stepped out saying she planned to buy cigarettes from an all-night kiosk, but instead climbed into a Citroen Picasso taxi and drove away.

“She left with no credit card. She left with no cell phone, no passport. She has no papers on her, probably no money,” Lutschinger said before she was found. He did not return calls to his cell phone following Dirie’s discovery.

[From CNN]

In her speech, Dirie had been planning on criticizingly the European Union for not taking strong enough actions to eradicate female genital mutilation in Europe. On Friday she was scheduled to go to the Netherlands to receive an award for her work. Dirie was attacked in her apartment in 2005 by a deranged stalker, and given the nature of her work she is likely often in danger. It’s unclear if she was kidnapped or disappeared due to fears for her safety. Luckily she’s been found – but the death of fellow activist Katoucha Niane coupled with Dirie’s disappearance is certainly a strange coincidence, and possibly more.

Header image of Waris Dirie at the Cinema For Peace press conference at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin on February 10th, 2008. Images thanks to WENN.

Update by Celebitchy: Dirie was abducted by a cab driver and kept hostage at his apartment for two days. He reportedly attempted to rape her. She is in the hospital getting treated for injuries to her arms and legs. She cannot lift her left arm. It sounds very serious and I hope she’s ok. There’s no word yet if Dirie’s abduction was related to her work as an anti genital mutilation activist.