Her portrait toured the world in the 1980s. The famous Afghan woman Sharbat Gula, immortalized by photographer Steve McCurry on the cover of “National Geographic” magazine, was evacuated to Italy. She has arrived in Rome, Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office has announced.
His emerald green eyes, his piercing and proud gaze, the tousled hair under his threadbare red scarf – the portrait of Sharbat Gula, taken in 1984, made an impression. The girl alone has become the symbol of the suffering inflicted on Afghans during the war led by the Soviet Union from 1979.
Sharbat Gula was 12 at the time, the young Pashtun orphan living in a refugee camp on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, after fleeing the fighting, like millions of other Afghans.
The illiterate mother of four Sharbat Gula was returned to Afghanistan in 2016, when Pakistan increased pressure on Afghan refugees to leave its territory. ” I would like peace to return to this country, so that people do not become homeless She said a year later in a BBC interview.
But last August, the Taliban arrived in Kabul and raised fears of the worst for the famous Afghan with green eyes. Italy then organized the evacuation of Sharbat Gula.
Along with the United States, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Germany, Italy is indeed one of the five countries most involved in NATO’s “Resolute Support” mission to evacuate those who are in danger since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.