The beauty and the brutality - pictures of the year

A PORTRAIT of an Afghan woman whose husband sliced off her nose and ears as punishment for running away has won one of photojournalism's top awards.

The photograph by South African Jodi Bieber of Bibi Aisha's shocking mutilation won the 2010 World Press Photo award yesterday. The Scotsman revealed this week how the victim may have to return to Afghanistan to testify against her relatives and see justice done.

The image, contrasting the woman's beauty with the violence done to her, was published on the cover of Time magazine in August last year. Judges said the photograph was chosen as the winner because it addresses violence against women with a dignified image.

Ms Aisha, 18, was rescued by the US military and now lives in America, where she is undergoing reconstructive surgery.

But Afghan prosecutors told The Scotsman this week that the case against her father-in-law - who allegedly held a gun to her head while her husband wielded the knife, and so far is the only person charged in the attack - will collapse if she doesn't return home to testify.

The photograph has echoes of another iconic photograph - the image carried by National Geographic magazine in 1984 of a beautiful young Afghan woman with a piercing gaze.

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Awards juror Vince Aletti said: "It's a terrific picture, a different picture, a frightening picture.

It's so much about not just this particular woman, but the state of women in the world."

The 2010 awards underlined a trend towards recognising amateur photographers capturing world events with digital cameras or mobile phones, as well as professionals.

The jury gave special mention to a 12-picture series made by the miners trapped underground for 69 days in a Chilean mine.

Daniel Morel won first place in the "Spot News Stories" category for his series on the January earthquake in Haiti and its aftermath.

Associated Press photographer Altaf Qadri won first prize in the People in the News category for a shot of mourners at the funeral of Feroz Ahmad, who was killed in September when Indian police opened fire on pro-independence demonstrators in Indian-administered Kashmir.

In all, 56 photographers of 23 nationalities won prizes. They competed among a record pool of 108,059 photos by 5,847 photographers participating from 125 countries.