Early this month, despite international outcry, Pakistan deported a woman who appeared on a 1985 National Geographic cover. Sharbat Gula’s striking green eyes were captured by photographer Steve McCurry in a refugee camp. A look at the story behind the iconic image
Homeland burns
Gula was 12 when she was photographed in 1984. A Pashtun orphan living in Nasir Bagh, a still standing refugee camp on the Afghan-Pakistan border, she was perhaps six when a Soviet bombing killed her parents. “We left Afghanistan because of the fighting,” said her brother, Kashar Khan, to National Geographic
When McCurry was documenting the ordeal of Afghanistan’s refugees, he noticed Gula inside a school tent in the camp and took her picture after she permitted him. “When I developed the picture, I knew it was special. I showed it to the editor of the National Geographic, and he leaped to his feet and shouted, ‘that’s our next cover’,” McCurry was quoted as saying by CNN. The picture influenced people to work in refugee camps and led the National Geographic to set up the Afghan Children’s Fund
Red-carpet welcome
Gula’s was deported amid Pakistani pressure to send the undocumented Afghan refugees back home. She was arrested for living with fraudulent id papers. In Afghanistan, the president and first lady honoured Gula in Kabul. President Ghani has promised to provide Gula, who is now 45, with a furnished apartment to ensure she “lives with dignity and security” in Afghanistan. In fact, Gula will travel soon to India for a medical treatment offered free-of-cost.