"Her eyes are still shining": The difficult life of an Afghan woman whose portrait has traveled the world

Sharbat Gula
Sharbat Gula / Photo: EPA-EFE / Profimedia

Sharbat Gula During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, she left her homeland with her grandparents, brothers and sisters and headed to neighboring Pakistan where they were admitted to a refugee camp.

One day, when Sharbat was 12, the photographer Steve McCarthy came to the camp. He took hundreds of photos that day, but only one was important to him.

The one Sharbat, or as she later became known as the "Afghan Girl", looks directly into the camera lens. The photo was taken in 1984 and ended up on the cover of National Geographic in June 1985.

Sharbat Gula
Sharbat Gula / Photo: Profimedia

McCarthy did not know the girl's identity. She was one of the few girls who attended makeshift classrooms that day. She did not like the fact that she was photographed by a man, and even more that she was a stranger. The Pashtun ethnic group to which he belongs does not approve of such things.

Her identity, despite numerous attempts by journalists, remained secret for almost 20 years. It wasn't until 2002 that a McCarthy-led team managed to find her in Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. Before that, several women claimed to be them, but the photographer never forgot the look…

At first, Gula did not want to meet the man who brought her world fame, which she did not even know about. She considered it inappropriate, as a Muslim and a Pashtun, to show her face to men who were not members of her family.

"I did not like that he photographed me. I did not know that photography traveled the world. "At first I was angry, but later I was told that the photo helped many refugees, so I was happy," Gula, 30, said during the meeting.

Steve McCarthy
Steve McCarthy with his works made in different periods of life / Photo: Profimedia

"Time and hard life erased her youth. Her skin looks like an animal's. Everything on it has changed. In fact, there is only one thing. "Her eyes are still shining," McCarthy said after the meeting.

The National Geographic team, out of gratitude, paid for the treatment of a member of her family and agreed to pay the cost of the pilgrimage to Mecca for the whole family.
She was married to Rahmat Gula from the age of 13. She gave birth to five children, one of whom died shortly after giving birth. Sharbat lost her husband in 2012.

She lived a peaceful and secluded life in Pakistan until 2014 when she was arrested and imprisoned for forging an identity card. After serving a 15-day prison sentence, they decided to deport her to Afghanistan despite numerous appeals from the international community.

Sharbat Gula
Sharbat Gula / Photo: EPA / HEDAYATULLAH AMID

Although she was initially afraid to return, the then Afghan government gave her and her children an apartment to use and paid them $ 700 a month in expenses.

But she failed to find peace in Afghanistan. The Taliban came to power in 2021 and out of fear for their lives, Gula decided to flee again. She was admitted to Italy and granted refugee status. All that has been known since last year is "that she is at a disadvantage and that she will be helped by her integration into Italian society."

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