PEOPLE

Guinea-born supermodel Katoucha Niane retired from the catwalk in 1994

Guinean Katoucha Niane, 47, nicknamed "The Peul Princess" (in reference to her ethnic Fula background), the daughter of author, playwright and historian Djibril Tamsir Niane, has died. She was one of the first black African women to attain international fame as a catwalk model of the Paris fashion world. However, she will be remembered as an exceptionally vocal opponent of female circumcision - widely referred to as - Female Genital Mutilation (FGN), launching a foundation against the practice, Katoucha pour la Lutte Contre L'Excision (KLPCE) or (Katoucha for the battle against female circumcision). Having been subjected to the procedure herself at the age of nine, the mother of three recounted the ordeal in her autobiography, Dans Ma Chair (In My Flesh) published last year. "I will never get the incomparable pain out of my head," Katoucha wrote in the book, which she dedicated to her daughters. She said she saw her career as a top model as a form of "revenge" for the dreadfulness of genital mutilation.