Top model, activist against female genital mutilation

The body of Katoucha Niane, one of the first African women to attain international stardom as a fashion model and a vocal opponent of female genital mutilation, was found in the Seine River in Paris, police said Friday.

Known simply as Katoucha, the former top model for Yves Saint Laurent and other top designers was found Thursday near the Garigliano bridge, judicial police in Paris said.

An autopsy showed no signs of foul play, pointing to the possibility that the 47-year-old accidentally fell into the river, police said.

She had been missing since January, when she was last seen returning home from a party. She lived in a houseboat near Paris’ Alexandre III bridge, and her handbag was later found on the boat.

Born in Guinea in 1960 and raised in Senegal, Katoucha told the Associated Press in 1994 that she ran away to Europe at 17 aiming to be a model. Her big break came when Jules-Francois Crahay, then the designer at Lanvin, spotted her in a lineup. The label hired her as a fitting model. Her first catwalk modeling was for Thierry Mugler at the start of the 1980s.

After quitting the runway, she turned to speaking out actively against female circumcision, describing her own experience at age 9 in her book “Katoucha, In My Flesh,” which was published last year.

“I will never get the incomparable pain out of my head,” she wrote in the book, which she dedicated to her three children. She also detailed wild nights of partying, alcohol and drugs.

Katoucha set up her own label in 1994 after years of modeling for the likes of Christian Lacroix and Saint Laurent. Singers Cher and France’s Johnny Hallyday were among the stars who turned out for her show.

Katoucha was the daughter of Djibril Tamsir Niane, an archaeologist and writer. She once said her father was initially disappointed that she didn’t become “a professional intellectual, with a university degree,” but later became reconciled to her other successes.

In the months before her death, Katoucha took on her first film role in “Ramata,” playing a beautiful and rebellious woman not unlike herself, said director Leandre-Alain Baker. Filming is complete, but a release date has not yet been set.