In 1985, when she was 30 years old, Sharbat Gula became the face of National Geographic’s most famous photograph. A year earlier, in 1984, she was a student at an informal school in a refugee camp when photographer Steve McCurry took her picture during an assignment. At that time, McCurry did not record her name. Still, when her portrait appeared on the cover of National Geographic, it quickly became the most recognized image in the magazine’s history.
In the 1990s, there were several failed attempts to find her. Finally, in January 2002, a National Geographic team managed to locate her in a very remote part of Afghanistan. McCurry traveled there to meet her again.
By then, Gula was married and had three daughters. Surprisingly, she had never seen the “Afghan Girl” photo until it was shown to her in 2002.
Years later, in 2021, at the age of 49, Gula fled her country and arrived in Rome. The Italian government explained that her move was part of a larger evacuation program for Afghan citizens after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan. News reports said she was granted refugee status by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
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