Apparently holding down a young woman while your son cuts her nose off is not a crime in Afghanistan. Bibi Aisha's former father-in-law has been released from custody because he "did not commit the crime himself" and because Aisha herself has been freed from the chains of that repressive regime. She is now in America after receiving reconstructive surgery, and Afghan officials apparently wants her to risk her life to return and prosecute the only man they were able to arrest. The pictures aren't enough. Her own testimony while she was suffering in a woman's shelter in Kabul wasn't enough. Her tears are not enough. Her misery is not enough. An American presence is not enough. Words are not enough; it's impossible to express the rage I feel when I think about what this beautiful woman went through.
Aisha was a child bride. She was married to a stranger against her will; he abused her without mercy. She escaped, but her family returned her to him. To "teach her a lesson", her former father-in-law and husband arranged to have her nose cut off. Several men held her down while a disgusting excuse for a human being mutilated her. When they were done, they simply left her there. She was forced to find her own way back to her grandfather's house, covered in blood. The other men involved were not arrested because their area is now under Taliban control. A weak excuse -- it wasn't always under Taliban control.
Bibi Aisha - a portrait of unsinkable courage and beauty. (Picture courtesy of NPR.)
We were told that the Afghanistan war was to save women. This happened on our watch. It is not the only gross miscarriage of justice to occur in Afghanistan during our long occupation, and it will not be the last. There are thousands of Bibi Aishas out there. Most will not ever see justice. Most will never even see their abusers arrested. A trial is a distant dream. The only consolation here is that Bibi Aisha survived to tell her story, and that she will have opportunities that her abusers never will.
