World

Pakistan arrests National Geographic's 'Afghan girl' Sharbat Gula

Islamabad: An Afghan girl with haunting green eyes whose portrait on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985 became one of the world's most recognisable photographs has been arrested in Pakistan for cheating, officials say.

Sharbat Gula, whose iconic image by photographer Steve McCurry earned her the title of "Mona Lisa of the Afghan war", was taken into custody from her home in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, police official Tahir Khan said.

Pakistan's Inam Khan, owner of a book shop, shows a copy of a magazine with the photograph of Afghan refugee woman ...
Pakistan's Inam Khan, owner of a book shop, shows a copy of a magazine with the photograph of Afghan refugee woman Sharbat Gula from his collection in Islamabad, Pakistan. Photo: AP

Gula, now in her 40s, has been charged with obtaining Pakistani identity by allegedly forging documents and would face up to seven years in jail if proven guilty, Mr Khan said.

An official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), a department that deals with forgery cases, confirmed the arrest.

"Our team together with police raided her house and recovered both Pakistani and Afghan IDs," said FIA director Imran Shahid.

Advertisement

Gula's family fled to Pakistan with thousands of Afghan families when Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

McCurry photographed her in December 1984 when she was 12 and a refugee in a camp on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Sharbat Gula with her family in 2002.
Sharbat Gula with her family in 2002.  Photo: ABC TV

The photograph appeared on the National Geographic cover in June 1985, and was widely used to publicise the plight of refugees.

Last year Pakistan's government began a crackdown on Afghan refugees who allegedly used forged documents to obtain Pakistani nationality. That's when Gula's name surfaced.

'Afghan Girl' Sharbat Gula in judicial remand in Pakistan.
'Afghan Girl' Sharbat Gula in judicial remand in Pakistan. Photo: FIA

Pakistan has said that it plans to send all of the estimated 2.5 million refugees back to Afghanistan as they have become an "unbearable" burden on the economy.

McCurry on Wednesday posted on Facebook that he would support Gula. 

DPA