Afghan girl from famous cover portrait is evacuated to Italy

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Afghan girl from famous cover portrait is evacuated to Italy

5:21 CAT | 27 Nov 2021

File photo: AP

National Geographic magazine’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl” has arrived in Italy as part of the West’s evacuation of Afghans following the Taliban takeover of the country, the Italian government said Thursday.

The office of Premier Mario Draghi said Italy organized the evacuation of Sharbat Gulla after she asked to be helped to leave the country. The Italian government will now help to get her integrated into life in Italy, the statement said.

National Geographic’s famed “Afghan Girl” has been evacuated to Italy following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Sharbat Gulla gained international fame in 1984 as a refugee after war photographer Steve McCurry’s image of her was published on the magazine’s cover pic.twitter.com/L7QPgAeU1a

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) November 26, 2021

Gulla gained international fame in 1984 as an Afghan refugee girl, after war photographer Steve McCurry’s photograph of her, with piercing green eyes, was published on the cover of National Geographic. McCurry found her again in 2002.

In 2014, she surfaced in Pakistan but went into hiding when authorities accused her of buying a fake Pakistani identity card and ordered her deported. She was flown to Kabul where the president hosted a reception for her at the presidential palace and handed her keys to a new apartment.

Italy was one of several Western countries that airlifted hundreds of Afghans out of the country following the departure of U.S. forces and the Taliban takeover in August.

In a statement announcing Gulla’s arrival in Rome, Draghi’s office said her photograph had come to “symbolize the vicissitudes and conflict of the chapter in history that Afghanistan and its people were going through at the time.”

It said it had received requests “by those in civil society, and in particular by non-profit organizations working in Afghanistan” backing Gulla’s plea for help to leave the country.

Italy organized her travel to Italy “as part of the wider evacuation program in place for Afghan citizens and the government’s plan for their reception and integration,” the statement said.

Sharbat Gula, the “Afghan Girl” made famous after featuring on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985, has been granted refugee status by Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi, according to an Italian government press office statement. https://t.co/p9Fn4s0YBS pic.twitter.com/cgPWHOuVy6

— CNN (@CNN) November 26, 2021