In 2010, Aesha Mohammadzai's disfigured face became a symbol of oppression of women by Taliban in war-torn Afghanistan.
Now, the 22-year-old Bollywood movie buff is only minor surgeries away from having the new nose she has longed for.
Her Taliban husband and in-laws hacked off her nose and ears as punishment for running away.
Since August 2010, when her image appeared on the cover of Time magazine, she's been known for what she didn't have.
"Today, she is only minor surgeries away from having the new nose she's longed for. The grueling procedures -- involving a painful skin expander in her forehead, as well as skin, bone and cartilage grafts -- are behind her. Come this summer, for the first time in years, she will appear whole, CNN reported.
With the end of her face's transformation in sight, she and the Afghan family that's embraced her believe everything else will be possible.
"She's a very bright girl. And her future is actually in her hands, you know. But we are the instrument to coach her. ... This should be our duty, to show her the right way and the wrong way," says Mati Arsala, who serves as her father figure and is facing his own challenges today. "There is no limitation for her -- where she can go."
Her journey began in 2011 with a few months in California, where she was supposed to get reconstructive surgery but was deemed too emotionally unstable to handle it.
She then went to New York, where she stayed for a year under the care of the nonprofit Women for Afghan Women.
In late November 2012, she moved into Mati Arsala's home in Fredrick, Maryland and joined Mati's wife Jamila Rasouli- Arsala and their daughter from Jamila's first marriage.
"I suffered a lot in my life," Aesha said, as Jamila translated, days before her first surgery last June. "Now I feel that a light comes into my life."
Aesha is being treated for free at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Once her nose is completed in the coming months, doctors will move onto her ears -- a less-cumbersome reconstructive process, but one that will take time.
Her disfigured ears, though, have not haunted her like her nose. Her dark hair, which flows down to her waist, covers them.
She has been living in a protective bubble ever since her surgical process began 11 months ago. She, and those caring for her, say she cannot risk contracting a cold or, worse, an infection.
As a result, she's stopped going to her weekly English classes and barely speaks English anymore. She stays up all night watching Bollywood videos and making jewelry. She sleeps during the day, the report added.
