New unpleasant surprise re Afghan "Aisha"

[Catya Sher]

Strange, the very evening before, when some of us were debating media outlets on one of the threads, I brought up the "hairan" expose of TIME magazine's FAKE "Aisha" story that had appeared but would never have been accepted by TIME itself as a protest letter to the editor.

Sure enough, first thing this morning appeared this new monstrosity from the US media:

World's Best News Photo is TIME Cover of disfigured Afghan woman"

By Joe Pompeo

The iconic, controversial Time cover photo of an 18-year-old Afghan woman missing her nose has been named World Press Photo of the Year.
"It's an incredibly strong image," said Ruth Eichhorn, one of the jurors of the annual contest said in the group's announcement of the award in recognition of the magazine's August 1, 2010 cover image. The annual Photo of the Year prize is sponsored by the nonprofit photojournalism organization World Press Photo. The photo "sends out an enormously powerful message to the world, about the 50 percent of the population that are women, so many of whom still live in miserable conditions, suffering violence," Eichhorn said. "It is strong because the woman looks so dignified, iconic."
"This could become one of those pictures -- and we have maybe just ten in our lifetime -- where if somebody says, 'you know, that picture of a girl...', you know exactly which one they're talking about," said another juror.
The image was captured by Jodi Bieber, a photographer from South Africa. The woman it depicts is Bibi Aisha, who was 18 when she left her husband, a Taliban fighter, over claims of domestic abuse. In an act of retribution, the Taliban allowed him to cut off her ears and nose. Aisha's husband abandoned her after the assault; American soldiers and aid workers later rescued her and transported her to the United States--where she now lives--for reconstructive surgery.

Time ignited a firestorm of debate over the suitability of the woman's photo when the magazine's editors featured it on the cover last August. Detractors called it "emotional blackmail" and "war porn," according to the New York Times, while others saw it as "a powerful appeal to conscience."

Note all the frills here: married to a Taliban fighter? Oh yeah?
Taliban "allowed him" --
but they expressly denied this !

Notice further that the ONLY debate even touched on here is about
'the suitability' of having such a shocker on the cover.

Nowhere is there a question about the TRUTH of the ENTIRE MATTER !

Such liars the entire media establishment are.

[graveyardofempires]

this is 100% propaganda to justify the invasion of AFG and their crimes against humanity.
worldpressphoto/Times are in no way honest journalists how can you be honest when you are in bed with invaders of a country and spew propaganda.
atleast fox news is straight forward abou ttheir intentions.
i doubt if Bibi Aisha is her real name,Bibi Aisha was the name of the Prophet (saw) wife so they might be trying to inject you with their anti muslim punchline along with the pro invasion one.
American soldiers and aid workers rescued her? so now american soldiers and aid workers are working as one and the same?
there are so many things false abou this story.

[fzpz]

You know what's funny, every time muslims point to pictures of dead/tortured/disfigured muslims from Kashmir, Palestine, Afghanistan, etc. they say its propoganda and ones misery shouldn't be used for 'radicalization' of the society, as it aides the agenda of 'extremists'. How is this any different? They already know the answer, the truth was never part of their agenda. The pictures of one 'Aisha' only justifies in the mind of the american that what they are doing (invading/killing/torturing) is justified because if it weren't for them the women would all have their noses chopped off. And boy do they love standing up for women.

[IamDZJ]

can someone please tell me what the lie was? i read the entire article and am still not sure what is being discussed here. i don't see what difference it could possibly make. someone cut her nose and then a bunch of other people fixed it back. that is all that should/does matter.

[Catya Sher]

Great thanks to GYE
and fzpz for their excellent insights !

even a minor sentence in the article is so dumb:
"This could become one of those pictures -- and we have maybe just ten in our lifetime -- where if somebody says, 'you know, that picture of a girl...', you know exactly which one they're talking about," said another juror."
I never heard a soul talk about this picture yet.

I doubt I ever will.

Most Americans are concerned to stay afloat financially.
They have little time to be discsussing "the picture of that girl"

Many barely have a clue the US has over 100,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan and battalions of other personnel over there to supplement the military force.

The judge was surely living in a different world when he remarked this.

[Catya Sher]

!!! ^

At minimum their visas should be revoked and the staff thrown out the door of the country.
they cause way more trouble than good -
and staff are there AT BEST to make tons of "mulla" -

Plus they look down on "mullahs" - just a joke

Seriously, almost none of the employees are there to HELP the Afghan people.

In contrast, in earlier decades, Americans who had come to Afghanistan
with the Peace Corps were the ones who remembered how lovely the Afghans
were and returned to help them out in their hour of need.
it was out of concern for Afghans.

Today?
I doubt 1 in 5,000 of Western employees of these NGOs have this mentality.
They are probably dying to leave when their contracts expire and dream of
home the entire time.

[afghan]

Abdul hadi hairan is agreat afghan journalist, who had reported the story long before the time magazine, the western media doesnot care about afghans but to justify their deeds they will bring every possible action either committed by taliban or any one else, their are thousands more who have lost their diffirent parts of their bodies, no one has got so much attention.

[faye]

just curious here. doesn't ngo mean non government organisations?

[Catya Sher]

afghan,
that is a very insightful remark. There was a nice video showing a sweet girl who had had serious leg problems as a result of a NATO indiscrimate bomb.
She could not walk or manage.
But just a single video which a few saw.
Mainly those on PF, probably, cared deeply.

Would SHE = a far more beautiful girl - have been featured on the cover of TIME ? NEVER NEVER NEVER, we all know this.

Back to GYE's comment about the choice of the name Aisha [it's one of my favorites].
It isn't all that common of an Afghan name, is it? I don't remember hearing that many of them.

If my theory is true, then that makes it all the more obvious how the TIME editors' selection of the honored name of Aisha was truly a barb at the religion of Islam overall as well as an easy name for Americans to catch onto, unlike some which are not easy for average Westerners to pronounce.

Nazia is EASY. Why didn't they leave her original name ?

Afghan is exactly right: hairan DID feature this story about Nazia months earlier.
Perhaps TIME caught sight of it and decided to go to town with the
story, twisting it and lying through their teeth to drum up shock value.

How cheaty they ARE, that hairan was not even mentioned.
Not that I agree with him on much of the topics of the day.
But credit where credit is due.
We must be fair ; neither did he boast about it at any time.

Faye, yes non-governmental.
This runs the gamut of agencies.

Russia was furious some years ago about American NGO's, claiming they
were fronts for CIA agents.
On the OTHER hand, America has not registered ANY complaint about Russian CHURCHES
in the US being pressed into service as handy KGB/Fsb outposts.

[faye]

so, i assume then that these agencies are not all religion based nor american. so why is there such a negative assumption that all the people, who work for these organisations and go to give some assistance to people in other countries, are somehow the enemy?
i have read on the forum comments that just assume that no-one cares about people in afghanistan. one of the reasons is, that the majority of people in america, europe and australia, probably didn't know anything about afghanistan before it was publicised that 'public enemy no1, osama bin laden' was residing there. then the war.
nearly everyone i speak to, and that is a real variety is sympathetic to palestine. many people are angry and i went to protests about the last invasion of gaza where most of the people were probably not muslims. the difference is, that this issue has been publicised for years and people now know the truth about the wickedness of israel. why aren't you pleased that there are people who want to go and help your countrymen. i think it is ridiculous to assume they are all up to no good, especially without proof. sure there will be some cons. i don't know about you, but i see a lot of documentaries here and they show some of the suffering and some of the work that people do in poor countries. plus i have seen some of this myself in india. most people i know did not want our country involved in these wars and the prime minister at the time behaved as a dictator when he made the decision to do so. from what i remember, there was no concensus on the decision, just john howard and his white supremecist cronies.

[graveyardofempires]

so, i assume then that these agencies are not all religion based nor american. so why is there such a negative assumption that all the people, who work for these organisations and go to give some assistance to people in other countries, are somehow the enemy?
i have read on the forum comments that just assume that no-one cares about people in afghanistan. one of the reasons is, that the majority of people in america, europe and australia, probably didn't know anything about afghanistan before it was publicised that 'public enemy no1, osama bin laden' was residing there. then the war.
nearly everyone i speak to, and that is a real variety is sympathetic to palestine. many people are angry and i went to protests about the last invasion of gaza where most of the people were probably not muslims. the difference is, that this issue has been publicised for years and people now know the truth about the wickedness of israel. why aren't you pleased that there are people who want to go and help your countrymen. i think it is ridiculous to assume they are all up to no good, especially without proof. sure there will be some cons. i don't know about you, but i see a lot of documentaries here and they show some of the suffering and some of the work that people do in poor countries. plus i have seen some of this myself in india. most people i know did not want our country involved in these wars and the prime minister at the time behaved as a dictator when he made the decision to do so. from what i remember, there was no concensus on the decision, just john howard and his white supremecist cronies.

the situation in Afghanistan is a little comlicated.

there are many different organisations involved in Afghanistan under different banners.Afghans themselves dont have a broader picture of whats going on in their country.Many are happy that now the a provincial minister is not stealing 100% of the money but 80%.
there are many foreigners who come to Afghanistan from countries such as thailand,india,and other less fortunate countries to work,but offcourse Afghanistan is in a much wosre situation than their own country but they take the risk just to make money from this lucreative business.the Afghans themselves have no jobs and no security.Im sure majority of peopel are against war against any country.

[faye]

the people i met in india and sri lanka, who were working to help the people there, after the tsunami, were loving their work, the people and lived humbly in small flats or in the village. so is an ngo also a company that goes in and takes cheap labour from other countries instead of employing afghan workers? i'll have to do some research.