Katoucha Niane, Missing Former Top Model Found Dead
Katoucha Niane, a former top model for Yves Saint Laurent and other top designers who went missing in January was found dead. Police in Paris say that her body was found on Thursday in the River Seine.
Katoucha became one of the first African women to attain stardom as a supermodel posing for top photographers like Irving Penn.
After quitting the catwalks, she spoke out against female genital mutilation. Police pointed to the possibility that she may have fallen in the river accidentally because her body had no signs of foul play.
While police believe she may have fallen, she probably upset enough people when she spoke out against female genital mutilation. How sad.
Below is clip talking about her disappearance in Paris on January 31.
2 babblicious comments:
What an exquisite and elegant woman. How courageous of her to speak out and to try to close the circle of her own mutilation, the atrocity that was committed against her; and to seek to put an end to the problem.
Unfortunately, it is an offense that is usually carried out by the older women, passing on the curse to the younger generations in a kind of cold blooded, ‘they did it to me, now we do it to you’!
It must not just stop with the men, but with the older women. It is rather like foot binding mutilation in China. The older women bound and crushed the little girls’ bones, hobbling them as they were hobbled.
I think you are right. I think she was murdered for taking a stand on this issue. This is no Courtney Love or Kate Moss habitually staggering around drunk. This was a very sophisticated lady.
I am very upset about this. Though I did not know her name, as a lifelong lover of the art of fashion, I definitely remember her striking image. It makes me very angry that such a woman would have to pay with her life to try to save others.
She had a remarkable self-possessed grace on the runway, in editorials, in that interview, that wold be admirable under normal circumstances. Considering what she survived as a woman and that she strove to be a voice for human dignity and medical wholeness, this respect is multiplied.
Rest in peace, bellisima. May your brave voice not go to waste!
I was very upset when I read that this gorgeous, courageous woman was dead. I immediately thought she must have been murdered. Since then the police have said there are no signs of foul play. She was an activist many years ago, and usually when activists are really on the world stage, this is when they are killed. So, just mabe, she did slip and fall and I can get some comfort from that, even though it is just such a waste of human life. She was one of my heros, and I think she has inspired many people to go on and achieve their passion. She left the world a better place for her being here, and will never be forgotten in the minds of the people she has inspired. She achieved what she set out to do which many people never achieve no matter how long they live. She will never be forgotten.