Sharbat Gluttony, an Afghan woman, was photographed by Steve McCurry while covering the Afghan-Soviet war. Sharbat Gula was 12 years old and living in refugee camps in Pakistan. After appearing on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic magazine, the photo became known as Afghan Girl. Gula’s identity was not known until 2002 when her whereabouts were confirmed and she was photographed for the second time in her life.
Sharbat Gluttony Wiki
Gula was born in 1972 into a Pashtun family. His village was attacked in the 1980s by Soviet helicopters. His parents were also killed during the attack. He moved with his brothers, brothers and grandmother to Pakistan to join the refugee camp on the border with Afghanistan called Nasir Bagh.
Steve McCurry, a photographer for National Geographic, traveled to Afghanistan in 1984 to document the effects of the war. He visited refugee camps, many of which were located on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. McCurry captured what would become one of National Geographic’s most famous cover photos. McCurry took pictures of Gula and other girls while at school in the refugee camp in Pakistan. Later, it was revealed that McCurry did not obtain permission to take these images. This contradicts the Pashtun culture in which women are not supposed to show their faces to anyone outside the family.
The magazine’s editor initially declined to publish the image. However, she eventually agreed and posted a cover photo titled Afghan Girl. The cover photo of a girl with unique green eyes, looking straight into the camera, became a symbol of the Afghan conflict and refugee problems around the world.
Sharbat Gula Marriage and Family Life
She married Rahmat Gula, a baker, in the mid-1980s. She returned to Afghanistan in 1992. Gula married Rahmat Gula in 2002 and they had three children, Robin, Zahid, and Alyan. Their fourth child, Alyan, died shortly after he was born. Later she had a child. In 2012, her husband was murdered.
How to identify Sharbat Gula
For more than 17 years, the identity of this girl was unknown. The journalist tried unsuccessfully to discover the girl’s name in the 1990s. Steve McCurry of National Geographic led a team that traveled to Afghanistan in January 2002 to search for her. However, several women and men claimed to be Gula or to be married to her. She was eventually found by a resident of the camp who knew her younger brother. John Daugman used iris recognition software to confirm his identity. Gluttony didn’t realize how iconic her face was over the years.
Sharbat Gula deportation to Afghanistan
Gula was arrested by Pakistani police in October 2016 on suspicion that she had forged an identity document. The Pakistani courts deported her to Afghanistan. Ashraf Ghani, then president, greeted her with promises of housing, education and healthcare. After 2016, she lived in Kabul and received a monthly stipend of $ 700 to help her with her daily expenses and medical bills. The Taliban forced her to flee Kabul in 2021.
13 things you need to know about Sharbat Gula
- His parents died in 1978 when Soviet helicopters attacked their village in Afghanistan. She fled with her four siblings, along with her grandmother, to the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.
- National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry, 34, photographed her with other girls in 1984 while she was in an informal school in the Nasir Bagh refugee camps under Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. McCurry didn’t know her name until 2002, when they reunited.
- McCurry’s 1984 photo, which he took in 1984, was featured on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic. She and Rahmat Gul were married in 1985. He was a baker. His daughters were Robin Gula, Zahid Gula (1999) and Alyan Gula (2001). Another daughter was born shortly after birth. They also have a son.
- He returned to Afghanistan in 1992.
- McCurry led a National Geographic team that traveled to Afghanistan in January 2002 to search for her. The team found her in the mountains near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border after encountering several women who claimed it was her. He was surprised to see the photo of the Afghan girl and to see the cover of National Geographic from June 1985.
- In April 2002, he appeared on the cover of National Geographic again. The magazine says it does not know her age, but it is likely that she was between 28 and 29 or 30 when McCurry discovered her in January 2002. According to her, she told McCurry that she had married Gul when she was thirteen. . However, he claimed that she was sixteen at the time.
- Her husband, who was 41 years old at the time, died of hepatitis C in 2012. That same year, Gjertrud Schnackenberg (then 41), began writing a play that was inspired by her. The work “Afghan Girl” was published by the New England Review in 2017.
- He allegedly applied for an ID card in Pakistan under the name Sharbat Bibi in April 2014.
- Nightwish, a Finnish metal band, dedicated an instrumental to him in 2015. It was called “The Eyes of Sharbat Gula” and was featured on the band’s eighth studio album “Endless Forms most Beautiful”.
- The Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested McCurry in Pakistan on October 26, 2016 for having false identity documents. McCurry shared the photo of “Afghan Girl” on Instagram after learning of her arrest. McCurry wrote the caption: “I am engaged [to doing] everything possible to provide legal support for her and her family ”. He spent 15 days in prison and then eight days in the hospital. After that, McCurry was deported to Afghanistan, where she was promised housing, education and medical care.
- She told the BBC in January 2017 that her “Afghan Girl” photo caused more problems than it helped. It made her famous, but it also landed her in jail. She said she was proud that the income from photography helped many widows, orphans. McCurry took his photo in 1984, when he was only 10 years old.
- According to National Geographic, he was 45 when the Afghan government awarded him a 3,000-foot home and $ 700 a month for living expenses and medical expenses in November 2017.
- It was confirmed that Mario Draghi, Prime Minister of Italy, granted him refugee status on November 25, 2021. He has now arrived in Rome, Italy.
Sharbat Gula’s personal life
Name: Sharbat Gula
Full Name: Sharbat Gula
Famously known as: Afghan girl
Age: 49 years
Birthdate: 1972
Place of birth: Afghanistan
Currently lives: Italy
Nationality: Afghan refugee
Martial status: married