Facing reality: Aisha's photo was on the front cover of Time Magazine in August 2010
Travelfwd: Brave: Aisha, now 22, pictured wearing a type of prosthetic nose often used by film actors. Her nose and ears were hacked off by brutal in-laws after she was promised in marriage aged 12 It was the image that woke up the world to the shocking horrors faced by women in Afghanistan. The photograph of Aesha Mohammadzai, whose nose and ears were hacked off as punishment for attempting to flee an abusive forced marriage, came to embody the appalling abuse suffered by many at the hands of the brutal Taliban regime. And her story of survival and resilience despite that harrowing ordeal captivated and enchanted the world. But now four years on, Aesha faces a new battle – a struggle to put the disturbing experiences behind her as she attempts to make a new life for herself in America. Aesha, won political asylum in 2011, having fled to the U.S. a year earlier, aged just 18, after being promised reconstructive
beginning: Aisha has a prosthetic nose fitted using a special adhesive. She will eventually have reconstructive surgery
surgery. She arrived without New speaking a word of English and illiterate in her mother tongue of Pashto. Since then she has undergone pioneering reconstructive surgery to give her a prosthetic nose and been given the education denied women back in her homeland under the Taliban. However, it appears the psychological scars from her ordeal have proven harder to heal. Those who have become close to Aesha have spoken of her displaying volatile mood swings – oscillating between violent tantrums and displaying
Recovering: Aisha has received counselling following her traumatic experiences
deep affection to people around her. Her plastic surgery had to be delayed because it was thought she was still not yet emotionally stable to cope with the painful and lengthy surgery required. Psychologist Shiphra Bakhchi, 31, who has helped treat the 22-year-old for post-traumatic stress disorder believes the trauma of her disfigurement may have caused deeper mental scars than physical ones. ‘I really hope at some point she’ll be a functioning young lady that had a terrible trauma,’ the private practitioner told CNN. When Aesha was 12, her father promised her in marriage to a Taliban fighter to pay a debt. She was handed over to his family who abused her and forced her to sleep in the stable with the animals. The UN estimates that nearly 90 per cent of Afghanistan's women suffer from some sort of domestic abuse. When she attempted to flee, she was caught and her nose and ears were hacked off by her husband as punishment. 'When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out. In the middle of the night it felt like there was cold water in my
nose. 'I opened my eyes and I couldn't even see because of all the blood,' she told CNN reporter Atia Abawi. Left for dead in the mountains, she crawled to her grandfather's house and her father managed to get her to an American medical facility, where medics cared for her for ten weeks. They then transported Aesha to a secret shelter in Kabul and in August 2010, she was flown to the U.S. by the Grossman Burn Foundation to stay with a host family. She was taken in by a charity in New York called Women for Afghan Women who supported her and helped pay for her education. But Aesha soon became unhappy and her behaviour gave rise to concern. During one outburst during, she threw herself to the floor and slammed her head against the ground, grabbing at her hair and biting her fingers. Source: Travelfwd
