'Shaming' her in-laws costs 19 year old her nose, ears

[moroni]

Source: CNN

"When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out," 19-year-old Bibi Aisha of Afghanistan says with chilling candor.

Her beauty is still stunning and her confidence inspiring. It takes a moment for the barbaric act committed against her to register in your mind and sight.

Wearing her patterned scarf and with roughly painted nails she shares her story.

"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 remembers.




Read more: http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/18/shaming-her-in-laws-costs-19-year-old-her-nose-ears/

---

There are no words....

[Auggie]

1. There's an image at the link. I suggest not clicking on it.

[TK421]

28. shit, too late

[joeybee12]

30. Thanks...just the story itself is horrific enough...n/t

[pecwae]

63. Don't!

You're much wiser than I.

[Name removed]

68. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[whathehell]

2. More Information from the link that is at least a little encouraging..

The continuous barbarism against women drives me mad.:mad:


"The court ruled that her nose and ears must be cut off. An act carried out by her husband in the mountains of Oruzgan where they left her to die.

But she survived.

And with the help of an American Provincial Reconstruction Team in Oruzgan and the organization Women for Afghan Women (WAW), she is finally getting the help and protection she needs.

Offers have been pouring in to help Aisha, but there are many more women suffering in silence.

The United Nations estimates that nearly 90 percent of Afghanistan's women suffer from some sort of domestic abuse. This in a country where there are only about eight women's shelters to provide sanctuary from the cruelty they face. And all of the eight are privately run.

"Bibi Aisha is only one example of thousands of girls and women in Afghanistan and throughout the world who are treated this way - who suffer abuses like this, like this and worse," says board member for WAW, Esther Hyneman".

Hyneman says not enough is being done to help the women in Afghanistan and that feeds into the hands of the insurgency.

"When you have ... 50 percent of a population on their knees, it's very easy for extremists, tyrants to take over a country," she adds. "They have a ready-made enslaved population."

Aisha is reminded of that enslavement every time she looks in the mirror.

But there still times she can laugh. And at that moment you see her teenage spirit escaping a body that has seen a lifetime of injustice.

– This story is part of CNN's Impact Your World project.

Post by: CNN correspondent Atia Abawi
Filed under: Life and Culture • Taliban • Women's issues

[Locrian]

4. diseased

"The court ruled that her nose and ears must be cut off. An act carried out by her husband in the mountains of Oruzgan where they left her to die."

That has to be a sign that whatever the hell they call "culture" is fatally diseased.

[Lorien]

18. Often I find myself wishing that we could airlift every woman and girl out of that Country

and give every one of them the kind of military training that's given to Israeli women. I agree; as long as these atrocities are allowed to continue the culture is indeed "fatally diseased".

[Maru Kitteh]

34. Lorien, I think that may be the best idea I've ever heard on the subject.

Forget training the men. It's the WOMEN who have the greatest cause for the kind of white hot fire it will take to rid that country of this kind of scourge.

[girl gone mad]

58. Yes, I wish we could arm them and train them..

in the art of self defense.

It seems like nothing will bring these attacks to an end, but the women could at least have a fighting chance.

[pmorlan1]

5. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It makes me so angry when I read about all of the horrific things that are done to other human beings. What a truly barbarous species we are.

[Dorian Gray]

62. Wow...

thanks for all the additional information. This story is so shocking, and though she is one woman who is getting help, perhaps his experience will open up aid to the very many other women who suffer this type of abuse at the hands of the men who make these decisions.

This is such a shocking and horrific story. My heart bleeds for Aisha and all the other woman who have suffered in Afghanistan.

[leftynyc]

3. Fucking barbarians

The freaking COURT ordered this. Can't we just airlift all the women out of that shithole?

[WildEyedLiberal]

60. Yep - airlift out the women and kids

They might stand a chance in a country that isn't so fucking stone age. I wonder what the "men" of Afghanistan would do without women to beat and torture? Honestly, I can't say as I care, as long as they do it to themselves and no one else.

[Mopar151]

6. Islamic fundamentalists are nasty people

It is the men who want "Sharia Law", and are "shamed" when their slaves run away.

[annm4peace]

7. It is the US empire building that left this country with barbarians

the us support of the Taliban, and then the decade long war has left with country with the most ignorant and brutal men.. we have chased out the middle class and educated.

this is what you are left with. It is against Afghan law just like it is against US laws for fathers to rape their children in the US, but it still happens.

[Rebubula]

11. No...

...this sort of shit was going on LONG before George Washington took his oath of office.

I would not disagree if you stated that our efforts have caused problems - but to pin these types of crimes on anyone but the local culture and Shar'ia is simply ignorant.

[ronnie624]

17. All sorts of brutalities were being committed back then,

especially by white people in the Western world.

Declassified CIA memos indicate that the architects of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan were well aware of the damage that would be done to Afghan society as a result of the U.S. instigated proxy war. I wonder what sort of place Afghanistan would be if the U.S. had not deliberately provoked the Soviets to invade the country.

[leftynyc]

25. Blaming the US and "white people"

for sharia law is showing a profound ignorance.

[LeftishBrit]

27. No, the US aren't to blame for Sharia law...

Nonetheless, if Ronnie et al hadn't tried so hard to build up the Mujahedeen just because they were against the Soviet Union, perhaps the extreme Muslim Right would never have become so powerful.

[ronnie624]

41. I didn't try, I was just ignorant and indifferent.

But that doesn't excuse anything. I still bear responsibility for my government's conduct.

[LeftishBrit]

49. Unless you are THE Ronnie, which seems a little unlikely, you don't bear any responsibility

[leftynyc]

24. Bullshit

The Taliban, led by Mullah Omar, are the ones who made the women of Afghanistan slaves. Long before we step foot in there in 2002. It was the court that ordered this savagery.

[NeedleCast]

29. Laughable

This stuff has been going on a LOT longer than there's been such a thing as the Taliban. Learn a little history of the region.

[Jefferson23]

8. No shortage of ignorance and misery in the world...ugh.

[grahamhgreen]

9. How many Americans should die for the Islamic republic we set up in Afghanistan?

[DCBob]

10. "It was an act of Taliban justice for the crime of shaming her husband's family."

The Taliban are brutal, evil, sick, extremists.

[bulloney]

12. Sounds like a potential new homeland for teabaggers.

[jmowreader]

36. Well, freepers anyway

Freepers are into the full spectrum of extremist Republicanism; teabaggers are single-issue economic extremists.

But you're right. The only real difference between a country that's under full-blown Sharia law, like Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, and the America the freepers would have if they got the chance, is the name of the god in charge. Sharia says there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet; freepers say you should have no gods before God and Jesus is God in human form.

[CanonRay]

13. And we're fighting for these people why?

[WriteDown]

15. We're fighting for the Taliban? nt

[Robb]

16. Getting your brown folks confused again?

[Lorien]

19. We were never fighting for the people there, even though the women of that Nation

could use an army on their side. We're there for an oil pipeline and war profiteering.

[madmax]

21. +++++++109

[jmowreader]

35. Well, the oil pipeline anyway

I thought it was a natural gas pipeline...but in August 2001, the US met with the Taliban. It was then the US explained to the Taliban, who weren't too happy about Bush's demand to build a pipeline across Afghanistan under conditions set by the US, that the Taliban had a choice: they could accept Bush's offer of a carpet of gold, or they could be buried under a carpet of bombs.

Five weeks later, the 9/11 attacks happened.

Remember that in early 2001 the Taliban decided to take action to ease the overstock of processed opium they held. In the US we deal with agricultural surplus by paying farmers to leave land fallow for a year (and it makes sense that we do that--the bank that holds the note on the five thousand acres you're not planting this year doesn't accept "we're trying to help ease the overstock condition in the nation's grain elevators" in lieu of payment on the land, and John Deere Credit doesn't accept that excuse in lieu of payment on your equipment.) The Taliban sends two companies of infantry to your place to cut down and burn your poppy crop, and they don't give you food money to tide you over until the next time you can plant poppies. To "thank" the Taliban for making an economic decision that benefitted no one but the Taliban, the Bush administration gave Afghanistan--a country with a GDP of about $2 billion in 2001--forty-three million dollars.

The intelligence community knew in Spring 2001--well, probably long before that but definitely in spring 2001--the Taliban was sheltering Al Qaeda. Clinton's people told Bush's people AQ was the most significant threat they faced, told them right where he was, told them they HAD to go get this son of a bitch right now before he killed any more Americans. They even handed Bush an easy foreign policy triumph on a platter: those guys who hit the USS Cole? This is their street address and here's a map to their house. We don't want to leave you with a war so we haven't gone out to get them ourselves, but you can pick them up pretty easy and make yourself look like heroes. The Bushies blew it off. Now we have a hole in the ground in Pennsylvania, a hole in the ground where the World Trade Center used to be and a recently mended hole in the side of the Pentagon.

You know how the freepers love to claim Bush kept us safe because we haven't had any attacks on our soil since 9/11? Discounting the fact we hadn't had any major attacks on US soil before that since Pearl Harbor, perhaps if the Bush Administration wouldn't have goaded the Taliban into it we wouldn't have had THAT attack either.

[chrisa]

53. Agreed.

Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Not worth one drop of American blood.

[Zoeisright]

14. That's just one example of what religion does.

That is sick, just plain sick.

[Shell Beau]

37. It is what some do in the name of religion. There is a difference.

[CLANG]

20. Simply barbaric

?w=640

[Imajika]

22. It is a very backwards society...

These people are basically 1000 years behind the developed world, and most seem not very eager to catch up.

Many of them do seem to enjoy their nose cutting, ear chopping way of life.

Sadly, this story is about one poor girl who had this happen to her. Unfortunately, it is all too common in areas populated by Islamic fundamentalists (which in Afghanistan is almost the whole place).

[benld74]

23. That culture of FAMILY HONOR sickens me,,,

[lonestarnot]

26. Those taliwaggers are motherfuckers!

[JBoy]

31. The misogyny at the root of that culture is what is sickening.

The men who feel the need to do this are pathetic excuses for men.

[Mimosa]

44. ^ Exactly right ^

One can't really blame 'religion.' That's simplistic. Nor can the USA be blamed. Early travelers into those benighted areas wrote more than one hundred years ago about similar abuses of women and children amongst the primitive tribes of Afghanistan.

Primitive, violent patriarchy is to blame. Yes, those losers need to oppress females to feel like men, to keep control and instill fear.

The good which may possibly come out of imperialist interference in that country is change. War is a catalyst which changes societies. Mostly for the better in the long run. The Taliban needs to be consigned to the same dustbin of history as the Nazis.

No, I can't see such brutality happening to women in the West because of Christian religion. That's rridiculous. Violence against women by males is essentially terrorism against women. Men who enact it will use any excuses or none.

[distantearlywarning]

32. This is exactly the same sort of mysogynistic religious nutjobbery

that the Christian fundies want for the US.

The ultimate irony is that they hate these people with a fierce passion, and yet they are just like them at the core.

[leftynyc]

42. Please link me to any

site, anywhere on the internet, where Christian fundies have called for mutilating a woman because of "family honor". Just because you try the cultural relativism crap here doesn't make it true. I have absolutely no trouble with the concept that not all cultures are equal. The culture in this story is backward, barbaric, savage and in no way similiar to our fundies.

[w4rma]

46. The right-wing is anti-choice and their laws tend not to care whether a rapist made the choice or if

the life of the mother may be endangered by trying to have the child.

[leftynyc]

54. But they aint putting

the victim in prison or stoning her for adultery. Bad choice to try and make a point.

[w4rma]

57. They force women through 9 months of a pregnancy and then possibly death. (nt)

[leftynyc]

61. I don't like the fundies any more than you do

The reality is that abortion is legal and they currently can't force a women to do anything. Certain states make it much harder for women and sometimes they have to travel. That's a long haul from getting killed for getting raped. No comparison.

[deaniac21]

51. Perhaps you should go back to school and enroll in

Moral Equivalence 101.

[leftynyc]

55. No need for that

I take a backseat to nobody when it comes to disdain for our fundies. But to compare them to people like this is moronic.

[Psephos]

43. Yes, those nose-cuttin', honor-killin', Sharia-luvvin' Christians are the scourge of America.

:crazy:

[whathehell]

47. LOL....You're right....That was a rather extreme analogy!

[Blue Owl]

33. As I said the other day

when this story first came out -- if these women were to avenge the sick fucks that did this to her, I'd call it progress.

Time to usher in those sick-fuck neanderthals to the 21st Century.

[polly7]

64. No civilization will ever change because of military 'help'

from another country. (Not that I believe for a second that was the goal for Afghanistan). Iraq was already miles ahead in terms of womens rights and IMO others would have been forced into following, if not for the Iraqi women's influence alone. The ME has been decimated time after time - never have women been made an issue by the attackers. Iran is slowly changing because of protest from within. Give these women support with international recognition, donations, help them and men inside Afghanistan sympathetic with their cause the tools - ie knowledge, means in terms of internet availability, possibly safe houses, etc. (I don't know what all it would take), but eventually their govt will be shamed into changing. imo and probably wishful thinking, but no-one can do it but them.

[tallahasseedem]

38. WTF...

is wrong with people?

[LeftinOH]

39. Being a woman in Afghanistan: Is there any worse fate for a person in this era?

Seriously- If the people of Afghanistan deserve freedom from tyranny, the women there need it much more.. freedom from the MEN of Afghanistan, that is.

[polly7]

45. The plight of these women - actually, in a lot of cases - very young

girls has been horrible for decades. Which is why I was SO angry when I read the warlords were being given Viagra of all f*ing things. For what? Ratting each other out or surrendering weapons to go home and abuse their child brides? It sickened me more than anything I'd read for a long time.

[Tailormyst]

52. No, there really isn't

They are treated WORSE then farm animals, worse then slaves. I would rather be dead then be a woman living there.

[polly7]

65. These women don't seem to matter. As long as the warlords are happy who cares if one of the brides

is a child? What kind of message is this sending the women of Afghanistan? It's certainly not one saying we believe their lifestyles are abnormal, or their violent husbands wrong in what they're doing.

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 26, 2008

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/25/AR2008122500931.html

[LeftinOH]

67. -and our taxes paid for the viagara, I presume. Aaaaargh.

[Last_Stand]

40. This sickens me...

I'm glad that there are organizations like the Feminist Majority Foundation helping to raise awareness and money for Afghan women and girls.

Mavis Leno is one of their more high-profile members working on this issue.

http://www.feminist.org/default.asp

[Ignis]

48. And yet NATO wants to use medical aid as a weapon in Afghanistan:

http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/63672/2010/02/18-125742-1.htm

[LeftishBrit]

50. How sad; and how disgusting

Afghan 'justice' seems not to have entered the second millenium, let alone the third. And this unwinnable war hasn't changed things for the better at all.

[JuniperLea]

56. #3 Comment by Bob is perfect...

"Still want to live in a country that legislates religious morality? That's why this happened to her... and it's why our country was founded, because people wanted to be free of religious-based laws like this."

[Liberal_in_LA]

59. horrific!

[Odin2005]

66. Barbaric!