Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-ChiefLast Modified: 11:37 AM EDT, 13 February 2012

AFGHANISTAN - Most often, we in the West are exposed to and challenged by an increased number of news stories of the heinous, misogynistic treatment of women and young girls all in other parts of the world.

Thankfully, there are a cadre of people and organizations dedicated to bringing greater public awareness to these gross injustices and when possible physically intervening in the lives of these women to improve their conditions or alleviate their suffering.

In an earlier post Nujood Ali a young Yemeni girl speaks of her ordeal as a child bride and the abuse she suffered. Now, we are privy to the suffering of another young teenager; an Afghan girl who was horribly mutilated by her husband under Taliban rule. Last year Bibi Aisha was horribly disfigured by her husband who cut off her nose. Last week, there was report of another Afghan girl who was beaten for refusing to submit to prostitution.

Unfortunately, these stories are becoming more common, but Aisha, 19, has become the face of this heinous behavior. In the summer of 2010, she shocked the world when she appeared on the cover of Time Magazine vividly displaying her severed nose. When Aisha 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.

When she tried to run away, she was caught by her husband who brutally hacked off her nose and both ears, before leaving her for dead in the mountains. Subsequent to her return to consciousness, she crawled down the mountain to her grandfather's house. Later, her father arranged to have her treated at an American medical facility where she remained for the next 10 weeks.

Once she was stable, she was transported to a secret shelter in Kabul and in August she was flown to the U.S. by the Grossman Burn Foundation to stay with a host family. Last week she returned to the public stage wearing a new prosthetic nose - one that gives her some idea of how she will look after having reconstructive surgery.

Aisha received the Enduring Heart award at a benefit for the Grossman Burn Foundation - the Los Angeles-based organisation that paid for her surgery. She was given the award by California first lady Maria Shriver. Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife told the audience: 'This is the first Enduring Heart award given to a woman whose heart endures and who shows us all what it means to have love and to be the enduring heart.'

This month after extensive counseling for her traumatic experience, she finally received a prosthetic nose fitted at the non-profit humanitarian Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital in California as part of her eight-month rehabilitation. Dr Peter H. Grossman said they hoped to reconstruct Aisha's nose and ears using bone, tissue and cartilage from other parts of her body.

Dr Grossman's wife Rebecca, the chair of the Grossman Burn Foundation, said Aisha was just one of the thousands of women who are treated with appalling harshness. She said: 'Aisha is reminded of that enslavement every time she looks in the mirror. But there are still times she can laugh. And at that moment you see her teenage spirit escaping a body that has seen a lifetime of injustice.'

The UN estimates that nearly 90 per cent of Afghanistan's women suffer from some sort of domestic abuse.

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Afghan Girl Who Had Nose & Ears Cut Off By Taliban Husband Shows Off Reconstructed Face, Talks Life In U.S. (radaronline.com)
'Light at the end of the tunnel' for Afghan woman mutilated by in-laws (thetimes.co.uk)
Afghans hold anti-U.S. rally following abuse claims (Reuters) (newsdaily.com)

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-ChiefLast Modified: 17:33 PM EDT, 4 March 2010

UNITED STATES - Nujood Ali is a ten-year old Yemeni girl who secured a divorce from her husband, a man 20 years her senior who violently raped her soon after their marriage. She recounts in her memoir her father promising her to this man and her mother's inability to protect her from the abuse she would soon suffer. Typical of many traditional, patriarchal societies, her father was the ultimate arbiter of all decisions pertaining to the females of his household. Even though Nujood's mother disagreed with the arrangement she was powerless to intervene.

Nujood's courageous story, "I Am Nujood, Age 10 Divorced," was just published in the United States this week. Her ordeal as chronicled in the book began when she was in the 2nd grade, before she had even had her first menstrual cycle. Though her father remained unswayed by her protestations, he did request her future husband to abstain from sexual contact with Nujood until after her first menstruation. On the day of her wedding, this small, scared girl remained curled up in a corner crying, and that night her husband raped her for the first time.

As a woman whose parents received the offer of several cows to become the nubile bride of an octogenarian, and who was violently raped as a teenager; Nujood's story evokes a visceral response in me. Whereas I was able to avoid her matrimonial fate through the strong protestations of my mother, it was achieved at the cost of subsequent physical abuse from my father who felt defied and humiliated at his inability to "control his women."

Nujood's nuptial night rape was the beginning of a horrible cycle of abuse from both her husband and mother-in-law who encouraged her son to beat Nujood. Though only in elementary school her husband forced to drop out since education for women is not valued nor encouraged. Her life of enforced servitude and childbearing was antithetical to the independence education would have afforded her. Statistically, an educated woman will desire to improve her situation and that of her offspring, which often clashes with the rigid structure of a society where a woman's opinions and thoughts carry no weight.

This is what makes Nujood's story so remarkable, she was born and raised within this framework and was yet a child without the benefit of outside references, who had the presence of mind to escape from her husband's house and go to a local court where she bravely asked to speak to a judge. When she finally found one who would listen to her, she proclaimed with boldness, "I want a divorce!"

Thus began a journey that would inspire other girls trapped in similarly abusive arranged marriages to petition the courts for annulments and divorces. It does not appear that Nujood knew the full import of her decision that day, nor the potential danger she faced from her family, particularly her father and brothers who could have easily murdered her, in all probability without retribution, through the practice of 'Honor Killing.' Thankfully, this was not the case and now Nujood can live her life in a manner prescribed and determined by her in large part due to the success of her book and the income that it generates.

Nujood Ali's memoir was No. 1 for five weeks in France and is currently being published in 18 other languages including Arabic. I highly recommend this book and encourage you to explore this issue further through the links below.