Home ›› 27 Nov 2021 ›› News
Italy has given safe haven to Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed "Afghan Girl" whose photo, published in National Geographic in 1985 became a symbol of her country's wars, Prime Minister Mario Draghi's office said on Thursday.
The government intervened after Gula asked for help to leave Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country in August, a statement said.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi also added that her arrival was part of a broader programme to evacuate and integrate Afghan citizens.
Gula gained international fame in 1984 for her startling green eyes, peering out from a headscarf with a mixture of ferocity and pain when Steve McCurry’s photograph of her got published on the cover of National Geographic. At that time, she was an Afghan refugee girl.
However, her identity was discovered in 2002 when McCurry returned to the region and tracked her down.
An FBI analyst, forensic sculptor and the inventor of iris recognition all verified her identity, National Geographic said at the time.
She went to Pakistan in 2014 in search of a better life, but in 2016, Pakistan arrested Gula for forging a national identity and was deported to Afghanistan.
Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, welcomed her back and promised to give her an apartment to ensure she "lives with dignity and security in her homeland".
Since seizing power, Taliban leaders have said they would respect women's rights in accordance with sharia, or Islamic law. But under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, women could not work and girls were banned from school. Women had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative when they
