Somali Culture Quotes

I was born in Somalia, which is in East Africa. My parents started with nothing: poor, poor, poor. They eloped, which was unheard of in my country, when my father was 17 and my mother was 14.

Somalis really are very musically sophisticated, and they're about their own thing.

I mix things from my Somali culture and my American side.

Being Somali, being Muslim, it's always something I've been very proud of.

I come from Somalia. We start working young, and we understand that kind of life. I would be bored to death not doing anything creative.

Most unmarried Somali girls who got pregnant committed suicide. I knew of one girl in Mogadishu who poured a can of gasoline over herself in the living room, with everyone there, and burned herself alive. Of course, if she hadn't done this, her father and brothers would probably have killed her anyway.

I don't look like a white woman. I look Somali.

We never wore burkas because Somalis had our own culture.

I'm always criticised by other Somalis and Muslims for what I'm doing as a model and married to a white man and all that.

I don't recognize my people anymore. I feel Somalia is lost. There is no Somalia. It is just a name.

I want to go see Somalia because I've never been there, and I feel like I'm missing out. I want to learn that heritage; I want to learn about my culture.