Six-year-old girl, victim of a Taliban gunman in Afghanistan, comes to Long Island

Little Marizeh survived a horrific gun attack that killed her father and brother, but thanks to selfless New Yorkers, her face barely carries the scars of that fateful day.

A Taliban fighter aims his gun at the face of a 6-year-old Afghan girl, as she hides in her family’s car under the legs of her dead father. The gunman pulls the trigger. A bullet takes out her right eye — the same eye that just watched her father and brother die — before the gunman walks away, believing he added the small girl to his list of kills. Marizeh, who survived that horrific encounter, will never be reunited with her male family members, but thanks to selfless New Yorkers, her face barely carries the scars of that fateful day. Kaveh Alizadeh, a New York-based plastic surgeon, reconstructed her face Friday, three months after hearing about the ambush while visiting Afghanistan. The bullet entered her left cheek and exited her right temple. This completely destroyed her eye and severely impaired her ability to breath through her nose normally. “Half of the bullet had formed a complete scar down her airway and the middle of the face,” Alizadeh told the Daily News. Marizeh was brought to the United States as soon as a visa was secured. Alizadeh performed a surgery to correct the girl’s facial structure at Long Island’s South Nassau Communities Hospital. “We took her into the operating room and cleaned out all the scar,” Alizadeh said. “She actually did very well in the hospital and is going to go home this morning.”Alizadeh works for Mission: Restore, a foundation that provides free medical care and education for people with needs in the developing world. The medical treatment could have cost up to $100,000 otherwise. Marizeh, who was also given a prosthetic eye, is recovering at the foundation’s sister organization, the Global Medical Relief Fund on Staten Island. “They have a house there for kids like this,” said Alizadeh. “So she’s going to stay there to recover for the next two to three weeks.” Then Marizeh will return to her home country but the generous workers still fear for her safety, so they have changed her name and will not disclose the family member with whom she will live from this point forward. “They live in an extremely remote area in Afghanistan, which is pretty much controlled by the Taliban,” Alizadeh said. While in New York, Marizeh has been a cheerful and spirited girl, smiling as she cooperates with the medical staff — a far cry from the torment she endured months ago.