[Time Magazine] Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban

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The following is an abridged version of an article that appears in the Aug. 9, 2010, print and iPad editions of TIME magazine.


The following is an abridged version of an article that appears in the Aug. 9, 2010, print and iPad editions of TIME magazine.


The Taliban pounded on the door just before midnight, demanding that Aisha, 18, be punished for running away from her husband's house. Her in-laws treated her like a slave, Aisha pleaded. They beat her. If she hadn't run away, she would have died. Her judge, a local Taliban commander, was unmoved. Aisha's brother-in-law held her down while her husband pulled out a knife. First he sliced off her ears. Then he started on her nose.


This didn't happen 10 years ago, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. It happened last year. Now hidden in a secret women's shelter in Kabul, Aisha listens obsessively to the news. Talk that the Afghan government is considering some kind of political accommodation with the Taliban frightens her. "They are the people that did this to me," she says, touching her damaged face. "How can we reconcile with them?"


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007238,00.html#ixzz0vlni…


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Time Magazine Front Cover, 9 August 2010

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The front cover for Time Magazine for Volums 176 No 6 to be launched on 9 August 2010


It is a portrait of Aisha, a shy 18-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced by a Taliban commander to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws. Aisha posed for the picture and says she wants the world to see the effect a Taliban resurgence would have on the women of Afghanistan.


(See managing editor Richard Stengel's message to readers about the cover.)


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