Nose hacked off, mutilated ears hidden by her dark hair, it was the magazine cover that horrified the world.
But for Aesha Mohammadzai, the Afghan girl tortured by her husband for attempting to escape their abusive forced marriage, that extraordinary and harrowing Time magazine cover was just the start of the story.
Four years on, she faces a new battle — a struggle to put the disturbing experiences behind her as she attempts to make a new life for herself in the US. Aesha won political asylum in 2011, having fled to the US a year earlier, aged just 18, after being promised reconstructive surgery.
She arrived without speaking a word of English and illiterate in her mother tongue of Pashto.
Since then, she has undergone pioneering reconstructive surgery to give her a prosthetic nose and been given the education denied to women back in her homeland under the Taliban.
However, it appears the psychological scars from her ordeal have proven harder to heal.
Those who have become close to Aesha have spoken of her displaying volatile mood swings — oscillating between violent tantrums and displaying deep affection to people around her.
Her plastic surgery had to be delayed because it was thought she was still not yet emotionally stable to cope with the painful and lengthy surgery required.
Psychologist Shiphra Bakhchi, 31, who has helped treat the 22- year- old for post- traumatic stress disorder, believes the trauma of her disfigurement may have caused deeper mental scars than physical ones.
“ I really hope at some point she’ll be a functioning young lady that had a terrible trauma,” the private practitioner told CNN.