Bibi Aisha (Persian: بی بی عایشه) is an Afghan woman whose mutilated face appeared on the cover of Time magazine in summer 2010. Her story first appeared in the Daily Beast in December 2009, which prompted doctors to write in offering to help her. The Grossman Burn Foundation in California pledged to perform reconstructive surgery on her and began organizing for her visa in the early spring of 2010. Diane Sawyer of ABC News also covered her ordeal in March 2010.
Aisha's father promised her to a Taliban fighter when she was 12 years old to satisfy an obligation, in a practice known as baad. She was married at 14 and abused. At 18, she fled the abuse but was caught. Her father returned her to his in-laws. To discourage kidnapping in the village, they took her into the mountains, cut off her nose and her ears, and left her to die.[1] Bibi was abandoned, but later rescued by aid workers and the U.S. military. Some sources dispute the role of any members of the Taliban in her mutilation at the time it happened.[2][3]
Aisha was featured on a July 2010 cover of Time magazine and in a corresponding article, Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban.[4] The cover image generated enormous controversy.[5] The image and the accompanying cover title, What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan, fueled debate about the merits of the Afghan War.[6]
The photo was taken by the South African photographer Jodi Bieber and was awarded the World Press Photo Award for 2010.[7] The image of Aisha is sometimes compared to the 'Afghan Girl' photograph of Sharbat Gula taken by Steve McCurry.[8]
Shortly after Time's cover ran, Aisha was flown to the United States to receive free reconstructive surgery.[5]