Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Pakistan arrests National Geographic’s ‘Afghan girl’
Sharbat Gula, now 47, shot to fame when she appeared on the cover of the June 1985 cover of National Geographic.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — She has been called the Mona Lisa of Afghanistan, the emerald-eyed refugee girl who appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985 in one of the most famous news photos ever taken.
On Wednesday, Sharbat Gula was jailed in Pakistan on charges of falsifying her identity papers. Gula, 47, appeared before a judge in the northwestern city of Peshawar after authorities arrested her for possessing a forged Pakistani national identity card. The judge ordered her held in prison pending a trial.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency said it was investigating allegedly fraudulent identity cards issued to Gula and two men identified on registration forms as her sons.
“The lady had obtained a Pakistani citizenship card in 2014 and also possessed an Afghan refugee identification card as well as an Afghan passport on which she had traveled to perform the hajj,” the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, said Shahid Ilyas, assistant director of the agency.
If convicted, Gula faces up to 14 years in prison and a fine of $1,000.
Gula has four children, including a 5-year-old son, whom authorities described as grief-stricken. Her husband, an Afghan baker, died five years ago.
Gula shot to fame when National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry captured her penetrating gaze, framed by a red shawl, in a refugee camp near Peshawar when she was 12. The image of the “Afghan girl” was featured on the June 1985 cover and became the magazine’s alltime best-selling cover.