Afghan ‘girl with the green eyes’ from iconic 1985 National Geographic cover is given safe haven in Italy after fleeing the Taliban and being identified using Advanced Iris Recognition Algorithm developed by Aditech’s partner IrisID after more than 35 years had passed.
- ‘Afghan girl’ Sharbat Gula was immortalised in National Geographic cover
- She fled war in Afghanistan and was pictured in refugee camp aged 12
- Gula later fled to Pakistan and lived there illegally but was deported back to Afghanistan in 2016
- Italy has evacuated Gula from Taliban-run Afghanistan and given her safe haven
Source: Daily Mail – Published: 25 November 2021. Article by Rachael Bunyan For Mailonline and Ap
The iconic Afghan ‘girl with the green eyes’ from the cover of the 1985 National Geographic has been given safe haven in Italy after fleeing the Taliban.
Sharbat Gula became the face of the Afghan war after her piercing green eyes were captured in an iconic photograph taken in a Pakistan refugee camp when she was just 12.
Years later, Gula was arrested in Pakistan in 2016 for living in the country on fraudulent identity papers and deported back to war-torn Afghanistan.
But Gula, a widowed mother-of-four, has finally found her safe haven after arriving in Italy as part of the West’s evacuation of Afghans following the Taliban takeover of the country, the Italian government said on Thursday.
Sharbat Gula became the face of the Afghan war after her piercing green eyes were captured in an iconic photograph taken in a Pakistan refugee camp when she was just 12
Sharbat Gula became the face of the Afghan war after her piercing green eyes were captured in an iconic photograph taken in a Pakistan refugee camp when she was just 12
Years later, Gula was arrested in Pakistan in 2016 for living in the country on fraudulent identity papers and deported back to war-torn Afghanistan. But Gula, a widowed mother-of-four, has finally found her safe haven after arriving in Italy. Pictured: Gula in 2016 after she was deported to Afghanistan from Pakistan.
Years later, Gula was arrested in Pakistan in 2016 for living in the country on fraudulent identity papers and deported back to war-torn Afghanistan. But Gula, a widowed mother-of-four, has finally found her safe haven after arriving in Italy. Pictured: Gula in 2016 after she was deported to Afghanistan from Pakistan
The office of Premier Mario Draghi said Italy organized the evacuation of Gulla after she asked to be helped to leave the country. The Italian government will now help to get her integrated into life in Italy, the statement said.
Gulla gained international fame in 1984 as an Afghan refugee girl, after war photographer Steve McCurry’s photograph of her, with piercing green eyes, was published on the cover of National Geographic.
An FBI analyst, forensic sculptor and iris recognition specialist all verified her identity, National Geographic said at the time.
In 2014, she surfaced in Pakistan but went into hiding when authorities accused her of buying a fake Pakistani identity card in an effort to live in the country.
She was arrested in 2016 and a Pakistani court ordered her to be deported back to Afghanistan.
The illiterate mother-of-four, now aged in her 40s, was also sentenced her to 15 days in jail and a 110,000 Pakistani rupee (£841) fine.
Gulla and her four children were handed over to Afghan authorities at the Torkham border crossing, about 37 miles northwest of Peshawar, Pakistan.
She looked visibly unhappy and before crossing, turned once to look back at Pakistan, her home of many years, and murmured good wishes for the Pakistani people, according to two customs officials at the scene.
From there she was flown to Kabul where President Ashraf Ghani and his wife Rula hosted a reception for Gulla at the presidential palace and handed her keys to a new apartment.
‘As a child, she captured the hearts of millions because she was the symbol of displacement,’ Ghani said of Gulla at the time.
‘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.’
Gula was deported to Afghanistan and met President Ashraf Ghani at the presidential palace when she arrived back in the war-torn country in 2016
Gula was deported to Afghanistan and met President Ashraf Ghani at the presidential palace when she arrived back in the war-torn country in 2016
Gulla and her four children were handed over to Afghan authorities at the Torkham border crossing, about 37 miles northwest of Peshawar, Pakistan in 2016. From there she was flown to Kabul where President Ashraf Ghani and his wife Rula hosted a reception for Gulla at the presidential palace (pictured) and handed her keys to a new apartment
Gulla and her four children were handed over to Afghan authorities at the Torkham border crossing, about 37 miles northwest of Peshawar, Pakistan in 2016. From there she was flown to Kabul where agoradesign.it President Ashraf Ghani and his wife Rula hosted a reception for Gulla at the presidential palace (pictured) and handed her keys to a new apartment
Ghani added: ‘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.’
The 1985 National Geographic image of Gula, then aged 12, became the most famous cover in the magazine’s history.
After a 17-year search, the photographer Steve McCurry tracked Gula down to a remote Afghan village in 2002 where she was married to a baker and the mother of three daughters at the time.
