Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Afghan torture victim all smiles


“What happened, it's part of me, part of my life and it's all the time in my mind and with me.  But I have to live, and I have to love,” said Aesha Mohammadzai, the young woman who was brutally assaulted in Afghanistan by her husband after she tried to escape from him. She is on the road to recovery as doctors continue to rebuild her face.
Aesha, who believes she is 21 or 22, moved to the U.S. two years ago after fleeing the war-torn country and is now six months into her surgery at a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.
According to Daily Mail, as part of the life-changing treatment, her forehead has ballooned and dark, drooping flesh now covers where her nose once was - before her husband sliced it off.
“I don't care,” Daily Mail quoted her as told to CNN. “Everybody has some kind of problem. At the beginning, I was very scared. I was scared to look at my face in the mirror. I was scared to think what will happen in the future to me. But now I'm not scared anymore. Now I know the meaning of life, how to live. There, I couldn't understand how to live.'
The report said that doctors placed an inflatable silicone shell under the skin of her forehead and gradually filled it with fluid in order to expand her skin and provide them with extra tissue for her new nose.
Aesha’s story was first told in August 2010 by Time magazine, who published a harrowing cover photo of her - horrifying people around the world and symbolising the oppression of Afghan women.
When she 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.
But when Aesha attempted to flee, she was caught and her nose and ears were hacked off by her husband as punishment. Left for dead in the mountains, she crawled to her grandfather's house.
She managed to get to a U.S. medical facility and then was taken to a secret shelter in Kabul before she was flown to the U.S. by a charity to stay with a family.
Aesha is now optimistic and cheerful. She prefers watching Bollywood films rather than American TV. Aesha is being treated at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda.
All in all, a reason to feel happy that she is recovering and hopeful. 

No comments:

Post a Comment