Mutilated Afghan girl comes to L.A. for treatment

[alp227]

Source: Los Angeles Times

An Afghan girl featured on the Aug. 9 cover of Time magazine after her nose was cut off arrived in the Southland Friday for treatment by local doctors.

The 18-year-old, identified only as Bibi Aisha (Miss Aisha), told Time that her nose and ears were cut off by her abusive husband — with Taliban approval — to punish her for running away. The controversial photo appeared with the headline, "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan."

Dr. Peter H. Grossman, co-director of the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks, said his wife, Rebecca, who heads the Calabasas-based Grossman Burn Foundation, saw Aisha on television and knew they could help her.

The foundation paid to bring Aisha to Los Angeles, found a host family for her to stay with and is funding her treatment, Grossman said. That could include a prosthetic nose or reconstruction of her nose and ears using bone, tissue and cartilage from the rest of her body, he said.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-afghan-girl-20100809,0,672514.story

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Link to the Time magazine cover

I hope the doctors can give her a permanent solution, as they are also hoping can happen.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/columnists/parsons/2010/08/07/time-magazine-got-it-wrong-115875-22470028/

[superconnected]

5. Link to common dreams artilce that explains the times cover obscures reality.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/04-5

Time Pictures Afghan Women, Obscures Realities of Endless War

by Michelle Chen

Things aren't looking too bright for the Obama administration in Afghanistan. Media leakage has exposed holes in Washington's military adventures in a self-destructing nation, and the U.S. public has started wising up to the dilemma of an endless and pointless war.

So perhaps Time magazine was trying to boost the morale of its war-fatigued readers with a new cover photo showing the damaged face of a beautiful girl. Her piercing stare seems to beseech the earnest Americans pouring blood and treasure into their war-torn nation, the last hope for the forsaken masses. The caption below reminds us, "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan." Don't dare debate the answer--the photo says it all: How could we be so savage as to turn our backs on Aisha and all the other girls destined for destruction at the hands of their backward patriarchs?

How could we turn away from this? Easy. We already have, and we've turned our guns on the women of Afghanistan instead. Activists have panned the cover as a reflection of imperialist arrogance. The "women's liberation" canard masks the ongoing, intensifying crises that women are truly facing: political oppression, economic destitution, and the social death of eternal warfare, Sonali Kolhatkar of the Afghan Women's Mission condemned the media's use of quasi-feminist rhetoric in justifying an unjustifiable war,

This is the same type of justification that the Soviets used (among others) to explain why they should remain in Afghanistan: to save Afghan women from the 'backward' fundamentalists. Foreign armies have always sought to protect Afghan women from violence by fomenting violence themselves. But in the end, just like the Soviets did backroom deals with radical misogynist groups, the U.S. has been empowering non-Taliban misogynist fundamentalists since the start of this war. There are incidents happening every day in Afghanistan of women and girls being harassed, raped, flogged and killed by pro-U.S. warlords and local commanders that are not working with the Taliban -- these incidents are rarely covered by the Western media. In many ways the U.S. occupation has actually made things worse for Afghan women. Afghan women activists I work with prefer to resist two threats to their security (the Taliban and the U.S.-backed central government) instead of three (the third being the U.S./NATO occupation) and have long called for U.S. forces to leave. Time magazine is playing to age-old racist stereotypes: that brown women need a foreign white army to save them from their men.

more....
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/04-5

[Warpy]

9. Reconstruction of ears and noses are not only possible

they are done very well these days. While they won't look like her originals, they won't cause people to stare at her if her face is unveiled.

I just hope she's not sent back there, that there is somewhere else she can go and not risk re mutilation by the scum who did this to her the first time.

[Whoa_Nelly]

11. Hope her younger sister has not been sent off as a replacement for her

as per the OP's original article link :(

[Warpy]

14. Tribalism is often like that

because the transfer of a daughter's body also represents a personal alliance and the transfer of wealth to her family.

Having lost one wife, maybe the bruiser will be a little more polite to a second. Probably not.

[dflprincess]

16. The U.S. has never recognized spousal abuse or even sexual slavery

as reasons for granting political asylum. In the past it has been very difficult for Afghan women seeking safe haven in the U.S. to get it unless they know someone here who will sponser them.

Of course, in an attempt to drum up support for his war, it is not impossible that Obama will change this policy so we can all pretend we're there to protect women from the Taliban.

[Salander]

19. The real news here is that Time must be in as bad shape as Newsweek.

I wonder if this cover had the intended effect of raising sales. It surely does a lot to promote hatred.

[kestrel91316]

2. Turn the husband over to me, just like the cat killer.

[Warpy]

10. Let me know when he arrives

Nurses know how to hurt people.

[iamtechus]

3. That's one

Now what about all the people we killed and mutilated in misidentified wedding parties?

[Lorien]

4. It was happening long before we got there, and being there hasn't changed

the hearts and minds of radical fundamentalists-in fact, it's only grown their numbers. A less corrupt puppet government may be their only chance for returning to the more secular society they had before the Taliban took hold.

[annm4peace]

8. the US helped fund Taliban during Clinton Admin, and

in 1998, RAWA and Feminist Majority was sending out emails calling for US citizens to tell our President (Clinton at the time) to stop supporting Taliban and to help the women of Afghanistan. To no support this Fundamentalist regime that had taken over the country and had come from the mountains of Pakistan.

The women of RAWA had been able to smuggle out the pictures of the horrors of what was happening to the women, and this we new to many parts of Afghanistan. Afghanistan had professional women and where not always controlled by Taliban..

And our military destruction has only made things worse. Now some of these same brutal men are in the Afghan Government.

http://www.rawa.org/women.php


When do you get to hear from the Female leaders and organizations from Afghanistan?


http://www.rawa.org/wom-view.htm

....... The war in Afghanistan has removed the Taliban, which so far does appear to be an improvement for women in certain limited parts of the country. In other areas, the incidence of rape and forced marriage is on the rise again, and most women continue to wear the burqa out of fear for their safety. The level of everyday violence in Afghanistan is something we would find it hard to imagine. "War on terrorism" has removed the Taliban, but it has not removed religious fundamentalism which is the main cause of all our miseries. It will require a very different approach indeed for those evils to be eliminated, which is RAWA's point. And in fact, by reinstalling the warlords in power in Afghanistan, the US is ultimately replacing one fundamentalist regime with another.

Karzai has gathered all criminals around him and even some top Taliban leaders like Mullah Ghaus, Hakim Mujahid (Taliban spokesperson who was on a US tour only months before 9/11), Wakil Ahmad Motawakal (Taliban Foreign Minister), Mullah Zaheef (Taliban Ambassador in Pakistan), Mullah Hotaki, Mullah Arsala etc. have been forgiven by Mr. Karzai and allowed to open their office in Kabul. Instead of appearing in the court of justice for their crimes, in the name of “moderated Taliban” these criminal and misogynist elements are coming in political scene once again because the US policy in Afghanistan requires such deals with them. This is indeed an unforgivable and treasonable deal against our nation and especially our ill-fated women.

It is due to such dealings of Karzai government and his US masters with terrorist warlords that Taliban-like decrees are still in place on our unfortunate women. It was on April 23, 2005 that Amina, a 29 year-old woman was publicly stoned to death on the basis of a district court's decision in northern province of Badakhshan who was accused of committing adultery.

Whenever there are fundamentalists, there will be hostility against women and RAWA's struggle for women's rights will not be over. Beside the fundamentalists' crimes against women, old traditions also regard women as second sex and they are suppressed, so RAWA's mission for women's rights is far from over and we have to work hard for women's rights in Afghanistan. We need the solidarity and support of all people around the world.

[LostinVA]

13. The US funded the Taliban long before Clinton and long after

Up until right before 9/11, they were our good buddies and the government poo=pooed the abuse of women. They still do.

Greg Mortensen has done far more for the women of Afghanistan than any US Administration. He was up for teh Nobel Peace Prize, and I think he probably should have won it.

[saigon68]

12. "A less corrupt puppet government may be their only chance" your quote

One that the US will direct and fund until all the Nut Jobs (millions of them) are killed one at a time

[Hissyspit]

6. Why was there no question mark?

With question mark: "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan?"

Without question mark: "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan."

[LisaL]

7. What's going to happen to Bibi after she is helped? Will

she be send back?

[txlibdem]

15. It's a good thing we 'liberated' Afghanistan from Soviet occupation

I can't imagine the atrocities they would have faced otherwise. Like maybe young girls getting acid thrown in their faces.

It looks like the wrong side won.

[Jennicut]

17. Oh Russia has the wonderful sex slave industry. Let's face it, the world treats women like crap.

Which is ridiculous since we are half the world. Wonders never cease.

[txlibdem]

18. Blame Capitalism

In a true Socialist society there is no money and there is no exploitation of women or other people. But the motive for these evils is money and since all nations in the world are tied to money you get evil people who will do whatever they have to do in order to get more and more money. They have no soul nor heart, just an empty cold stone that no amount of money can fix. It is a terrible, never ending cycle.

Down with Capitalism! Down with money!