The “world’s most-famous refugee” has once again been forced to flee her homeland.
Sharbat Gula, better known as National Geographic’s green-eyed “Afghan girl,” has been evacuated to Italy after the Taliban takeover.
Gula had asked for help from European countries after the hardline Islamists returned to power in August, and the Italian government came through.
In 1984, Gula became famous worldwide for her piercing green eyes on the cover of National Geographic, a symbol of the international refugee crisis.
Photographer Steve McCurry met her again in 2002, but she was unceremoniously booted from Pakistan and sent back to Afghanistan in 2016. Pakistani authorities said she was carrying forged ID documents; she was welcomed with open arms by the Afghan government at the time.
The Italian government announced her arrival in Rome on Thursday, saying it was “part of the wider evacuation program in place for Afghan citizens.”
Multiple organizations had alerted the Italian government to Gula’s plight and urged Premier Mario Draghi to take action, according to Draghi’s statement.
Gula was 12 years old living in Nasir Begh refugee camp along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border when McCurry visited the region in 1984 to capture the disastrous results of the Soviet invasion. She was attending a pieced-together girls’ school when McCurry captured her all-too-real haunted gaze.
“For an instant everything was right — the light, the background, and the expression in her eyes,” McCurry told a biographer.
Almost 30 years later, however, the photo was criticized as people pointed out the true fear in Gula’s eyes was likely of McCurry, a male stranger she’d never seen before.
As Gula’s photo became internationally famous, McCurry endeavored to find the girl with green eyes whose name he didn’t learn back in 1984. After years of failure, he succeeded in 2002 with help from a team at National Geographic.
By that time, Gula had four children and was living in a dangerous area of Afghanistan, a region being shelled by U.S. forces after 9/11. McCurry and Gula met briefly, with Gula learning for the first time about her face being seen across the world.
She eventually returned to Pakistan, but after her deportation in 2016, which followed a 15-day jail sentence, she revealed that she had mixed feelings about the shot.
“The photo created more problems than benefits,” Gula said in 2017. “It made me famous but also led to my imprisonment.”
“Before this I was a villager, I did not like the photo and the media. Now I am very happy that it gave me honor and made me popular among people.”
With News Wire Services
