The Government of Italy has announced that it has granted asylum to Sharbat Gula, known for being the green-eyed ‘Afghan girl’ who made the cover of ‘National Geographic’ magazine in June 1985. The office of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, has indicated in a statement that the authorities “organized their trip to Italy as part of the evacuation program underway for Afghan citizens and the plan for their reception and reintegration.” after the Taliban seized power in August.
He also stressed that the decision has come “in response to calls made by civil society, particularly by non-profit organizations in Afghanistan (…) that have supported Sharbat Gula in his request for help in leaving the country. “
The statement highlights that Gula “is known in the world since 1985 when a photograph taken of her as a child in a refugee camp in Peshawar, taken a year earlier by Steve McCurry, was featured in ‘National Geographic.’ that Afghanistan and its people were going through at that time, “he said.
McCurry, who portrayed her in 1984, then began a search and, after several unsuccessful attempts, found her in Afghanistan 17 years later and confirmed his identity using an iris recognition technique. Gula had never seen her photo and she saw it for the first time in 2002, when she was photographed again with the aforementioned cover. The woman was arrested and extradited from Pakistan to Afghanistan in 2016 for the alleged falsification of her identity documents.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
