Bibi Aisha

Bibi Aisha (Pashto: بي بي عایشه‎; Bibi is a term of respect meaning "Lady"; born Aisha Mohammadzai, legal name in the United States: Aesha Mohammadzai) 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 for free. The Grossman Burn Foundation in California pledged to perform reconstructive surgery and began organizing for her visa in the early spring of 2010. Diane Sawyer of ABC News originally covered her ordeal in March 2010 and revisited her story again in 2014.

Aisha suffered early in life, losing her mother and forced into marriage as a teenager. In a practice known as baad, Aisha's father promised her to a Taliban fighter when she was 12 years old as compensation for a killing that a member of her family had committed. She was married at 14 and subjected to abuse. At 18 she fled the abuse but was caught by police, jailed for five months, and returned to her family. Her father returned her to her in-laws. To take revenge on her escape, her father-in-law, husband, and three other family members took Aisha into the mountains, cut off her nose and her ears, and left her to die. Aisha was later rescued by aid workers and the U.S. military. Some sources disputed the role of any members of the Taliban in her mutilation.

Aisha was featured on the August 2010 cover of Time magazine, and in the corresponding article, "Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban." The cover image generated enormous controversy. The image and the accompanying cover title, "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan," fueled debate about the merits of the Afghan War.

The photo was taken by the South African photographer Jodi Bieber and was awarded the World Press Photo Award for 2010. The image of Aisha is sometimes compared to the Afghan Girl photograph of Sharbat Gula taken by Steve McCurry.

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