Rome: Italy has given safe haven to the green-eyed “Afghan girl” Sharbat Gula, whose 1985 photo in National Geographic became a symbol of her country’s wars, Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office said on Thursday.
Government intervenes after Gula asks for help to leave Afghanistan Taliban capture the country In August, a statement said, his arrival was part of a wider program to evacuate and integrate Afghan civilians.
American photographer Steve McCurry photographed Gula, who lives in a refugee camp on the Pakistan-Afghan border, when she was young.
Her staggering green eyes, peeking from a headscarf with a mixture of cruelty and pain, earned her international recognition, but she was only recognized in 2002 when McCurry returned to the area and tracked her down.
An FBI analyst, forensic sculptor and inventor of iris recognition confirmed his identity, National Geographic said at the time.
In 2016, Pakistan arrested Gula on charges of forging a national identity card in an attempt to stay in the country.
The then Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, welcomed her and promised her an apartment to ensure that she “lives with honor and security in her homeland”.
Since seizing power, Taliban leaders have said they will respect women’s rights according to Sharia or Islamic law. But under the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, women could not work and girls were banned from going to school. When leaving home, women had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative.
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