The iconic green-eyed Afghan girl who was on the cover of 1985 National Geographic has been given safe haven in Italy after fleeing the Taliban.
Her name is Sharbat Gula. She became the face of the Afghan war after her stunning green eyes were captured by a photographer when she was just 12 years old and staying in a Pakistan refugee camp.
She was arrested in Pakistan years later in 2016, for being in the country on fraudulent identity papers. And then she was deported back to war-torn Afghanistan.
But now she is a widowed mother of four. And she finally found her safe haven in Italy. She managed to go to Italy as part of the West’s evacuation of Afghans because of the Taliban takeover of the country. This was reported by the Italian Government officials.
According to the statement, the office of Premier Mario Draghi said that Italy organized the evacuation of Gulla after she asked to be helped to leave the country. And now the Italian government is helping her to get her integrated into life in Italy.
She became internationally famous in 1984 as an Afghan refugee girl. Steve McCurry was the photographer who took the photograph with her dashing green eyes. And that photograph was published on the cover of National Geographic.
And according to National Geographic an FBI agent, forensic sculptor, and the inventor of iris recognition all verified her identity as Sharbat Gula.
She was surfaced again in 2014, in Pakistan but went into hiding right after. Because Pakistani authorities accused her of buying a fake identity card to live in Pakistan. And then she was arrested in 2016 and ordered to deport her back to Afghanistan.
Now she is in her 40s, and she is a widowed mother of four children. And she was sentenced to jail for 15 days and also a fine of 110,000 Pakistani rupees ($948).
Gula and her four children were given back to Afghan authorities at the Torkham border crossing which is situated 37 miles northwest of Peshawar in Pakistan.
According to two customs officials at the scene, she looked unhappy to leave Pakistan, turned once to look back, and murmured good wishes for the Pakistani people, her home for many years.
After she arrived in Kabul, President Ashraf Ghani and his wife Rula hosted a reception for Gulla and her family at the presidential palace and gave a key to a new apartment.
Ghani said to Gulla at the time, “As a child, she captured the hearts of millions because she was the symbol of displacement. The enormous beauty, the enormous energy that she projected from her face captured hearts and became one of the most famous photographs of the 1980s and up until the 1990s. It is a privilege for me to welcome her. We are proud to see that she lives with dignity and with security in her homeland,”
12 years old Gulla’s face in 1985 National geographic cover became the most famous cover in magazine’s history.
And after searching for 17 years the photographer, Steve McCurry managed to track down Gula in a remote Afghan village in 2002. At that time she was married to a baker and she was a mother of three daughters.
Gula is suffering from hepatitis C, and she told that her husband passed away several years ago.
After the departure of U.S forces and the Taliban takeover in August, Italy was one of several western countries that airlifted hundreds of Afghans out from Afghanistan.
After taking over the power, Taliban leaders have said that they would respect women’s rights in accordance with Sharia, or Islamic law. But under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, women would not work and girls were banned from schools. And all the women had to cover their faces and should be accompanied by a male relative when they left home.
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