Time magazine cover girl's father-in-law arrested for 'cutting off her nose'
The father-in-law of an Afghan woman who said her nose and ears were sliced off to punish her for running away from her violent husband has been arrested, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.
The woman, Aisha, gained worldwide attention when she appeared on the Aug. 9 cover of Time magazine. Under orders from a Taliban commander acting as a judge, she was disfigured last year as punishment for fleeing her husband's home, according to Time's story in August and other accounts. Aisha, 18 at the time, said she ran away to escape her in-laws' beatings and abuse.
Zemeri Bashary, an Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman, said Aisha's father-in-law was arrested in southern Afghanistan in recent weeks. It was not immediately clear whether he had been formally charged. He was being held in jail in Uruzgan province. Aisha was sent to Los Angeles over the summer for reconstructive surgery. In September, she was fitted with a temporary, prosthetic nose so she could visualise what she would look like and to help build her confidence.