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Jodi Bieber / Institute for Artist Management / Goodman Gallery for Time magazine
Portrait of Bibi Aisha.
The international jury of the 54th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected this picture by Jodi Bieber as the World Press Photo of the Year 2010.
The winning picture shows Bibi Aisha, an 18-year-old woman from Oruzgan province in Afghanistan, who fled back to her family home from her husband's house, complaining of violent treatment. The Taliban arrived one night, demanding Bibi be handed over to face justice. After a Taliban commander pronounced his verdict, Bibi's brother-in-law held her down and her husband sliced off her ears and then cut off her nose. Bibi was abandoned, but later rescued by aid workers and the American military. After time in a women's refuge in Kabul, she was taken to America, where she received counseling and reconstructive surgery. Bibi Aisha now lives in the US.
Click here for a slideshow of more World Press Photo winners.
Leave a Comment:
Thank Wikileaks for empowering the Taliban to do more of the same.
Forget the War on Terror or whatever other reasons people debate about our being in Afghanistan... This is as good a reason as any to justify the morality of killing such bunch of (insert expletive here)...
I'm wishing for a world where everyone has freedom and safety and no nutso fanatics! God bless the peacemakers!
@Sam: Wikileaks has nothing to do with this, you pathetic person. This barbaric but typical action is the result of religious fundamentalism, pure and simple. What any normal human being would be ashamed to do,would be morally horrified to do, religious fundamentalists unhesitatingly will do because they feel that they have a direct link to what [their] God wants them to do. Those who would suppress freedom of information and of the press--such as those who try to demonize Wikileaks--are those who would not want a picture such as this one, or the story behind it, to ever be known to the free world. Fundamentalists are fundaments!
Women in Egypt better prepare for the same thing...Extremist will eventually seize control.
Irrefutable proof that radical Muslims are the scourge of the earth. Islam proudly promotes death, disfigurement and oppression. Muslims simply cannot be human beings, made in the image of God; they're much too cruel.
And we're trying to bring democracy to Afghanistan. I would like to think that we're there in part to help secure a future for women like Bibi, but I'm not sure that's possible.
I would like to see what she looks like now. I am so glad that our compassionate soldiers saved her life and that she now has a future. I would hope that she could inspire other Afghan women who live in fear.
To be betrayed by her family like this....I just can't fathom this. It's beyond my scope of understanding.
Le Ann, you are an ignorant fool.
Why is Le Ann called a fool? If Americans don't see the truth about Islam, then we're all fools. Muslims are told that nonbelievers (infidels) are to be despised; anyone not like them should be destroyed. They take matters into their own hands because the Quran tells them that Allah despises the infidel. (Notice it's Allah; God doesn't want his children out there killing nonbelievers.) And let's talk about how the Quran raises up men to think women are chattel. Look it up.
Radical Muslims maybe told that, Susannah. My Muslim friends tell me that they are taught to respect Christians and that God and Allah are one and the same. The religions differ on Jesus and Mohammed. They believe that Jesus was just a disciple, like Mohammed, and not the Son of God. Yes, they believe that the man is the head of the household. I was also taught that in a Baptist church. My friends don't believe in violence in any form, whether it's against their women or not. It' the radical Muslims who give the rest of them a bad rep.
Ntimad, yes, yes of course all of your no doubt numerous Muslims friends are peace loving I'm sure. Give it a rest, the majority of Muslims are violent, oppressive and non tolerant.
The horrors of the sick and the beauty of the soul shall not be denied
moving beyond words as my tears spoke what i can not express
Bibi...If you are reading this; I am sorry for the way you have been treated in your lifetime...I hope you will be happy in America; I hope you find a good man, that will love and cherish you the way all women deserve to be loved...
Good luck to you; may God bless you, and keep you in his protection...
Sad, was this taken before, or after the reconstructive surgery?
Dear Bibi, I am so happy for you that you have escaped this violence and will now have a second chance at life in the United States. You have been very brave, and I am so sorry you had this happen to you. I am confident the surgeons in the States can help you. Your beauty comes from your brave spirit and inner strength. Best wishes.
I have to wonder WHY all the peace-loving Muslims in the world are not rising up in defiance against the radicals who are making them ALL look like monsters?? It's the same Quran, the one that tells believers that infidels must die. It looks to me like the peace-loving Muslims would be responsible for quelling the violent factions of their own religion.
What if Christians were to take the Old Testament to heart, the Old Testament that condones violence against non-believers? History tells us about the violence of the Crusades - now it's the Muslim radicals doing the violence. So who's going to stop them??
Dear U.S. Citizen:
They are here:
and here:
They are actually everywhere. In fact the year after 9/11 a religious gathering called by the King of Jordan declared all the Imams of terrorist organization to be basically excommunicated. There have been moderate Muslims speaking out and protesting the use of violence ever since 9-11 and the abuses against women for even longer. The great shame of U.S. journalism is that "If it bleeds, it leads." and so the American public never hears of it and so assumes that all Muslim are as bad as what ends up on the evening news.
I tried to post links to the protests in Lahore this last November against the executing of Asia Bibi and the Fatawa against terrorism issued by Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadr in London last year.
There are hundred of stories out there of Mulsim individuals and group speaking out against terrorism and misogyny. You just have to look for them.
Where do men get off thinking they are free to treat women as chattel to be dismissed and destroyed as they want, when they want? That is enough!!! Women are God's children and no one, no matter who you think you are, has the right to hurt, harm, or damage another human being. These continuous attacks are not only deleterious to women, they hold deleterious consequences for children as well. Boys will go on to repeat these attacks on girls as they get older; and girls will resign themselves to the fact that this is their fate and nothing will ever change. It has got to stop! We have to take a stand against these incessant acts of violence or, they will never stop. Enough is enough.