The Exploration of Women's Suffering Under Patriarchy in the Work of Waris Dirie's Desert Dawn

The history of the sufferings of a woman is tricky, turbulent but therapeutic as well. Women through the ages has suffered either at the hand of religion or culture. Male dominancy has reduced woman mostly into a second-class denizens of the world. One-half of the human race is still living amidst cruel practices. Is she really so helpless or impotent? In the character of Waris Dirie, we see she is not. Yes, she does become one when she doesn't have an understanding of her strength. She is exploited in the name of patriarchy. She falls prey to certain prejudicial practices ordained by culture or tradition or providence.This research is meant to highlight the travails of Waris Dirie and dispel the impression of a woman being 'an incomplete being' as promoted in a male-identified society.It is time, in the words of Mary Wolston Craft, that a degree of reason, virtue and knowledge should replace outdated cultural practices against women. (Wollstonecraft, 1796).