The face on the cover of Time magazine is graceful, composed and unthinkably maimed. The hole where 18-year-old Aisha's nose should be is a mark of Taliban justice -- a visceral illustration, the headline suggests, of "what happens if we leave Afghanistan."
The portrait has quickly become a symbol of the stakes of a nearly decade-old war. It has been brandished before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on television, dissected in online commentary and extrapolated into a conversation-starter about topics ranging from abortion activism to violence against women.
If the response proves it's still possible for pictures to provoke a visually saturated culture, it also shows how much viewers have come to accept graphic images. Relatively little of the discussion has centered on the graphic nature of the image.
Under orders from a Taliban commander acting as a judge, Aisha's nose and ears were sliced off last year as punishment for fleeing her husband's home, according to Time's story and other accounts. She said she fled to escape her in-laws' beatings and abuse.
Now in a women's shelter, she is set to get reconstructive surgery in the United States, with the help of Time, humanitarian organizations and others.
Aisha wanted readers to see the potential consequences of a Taliban resurgence, the magazine said.
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