Aisha, does the name strike a chord in your minds? I'm not particularly referring to Aisha the film based loosely on Jane Austen's novel, Emma. The Aisha in this context was the 18 year old Afghan girl, who featured on the cover of the TIME magazine in the August issue. Her nose and ears were chopped off by her brutal husband because she tried to run away from the oppression. This in the Pashtun society is a punishment that is given to the wife who disgraces her husband.
So this girl is in news this time because of the brand new prosthetic nose surgery, with a newer look and a much improved self confidence. Soon enough the doctors will give her a more permanent solution, a step ahead of the plastic surgery. And believe me I do feel very happy for her as she has been granted a new life. But to me, it seems more like another attempt of US to showcase that they are the Global Rescuer. It is good that the life of this still teenager has been granted back to her buffed & polished, but such issues occur everyday, around the streets of Afghanistan. When we refer to the atrocities against women, the buck just does not stop here. I would not say it is about just a girl in Afghanistan, but what about the thousands of women die in India for dowry or refusal to marry? If the laws of the Pashtun society sound absurd, the local superstitions beliefs of the people in a village in Jharkhkand, India don't seem any wiser by parading women naked and making them eat human excreta on the pretext of calling them 'possessed'.
The idea here is not to change a society or the norms, it is just about waking up and smelling the coffee!
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