Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed “Afghan Girl” in the photo made world-famous in 1985 by National Geographic magazine, has fled from Afghanistan and will live in Italy, Huffington Post reported on Thanksgiving Day, 2021 (story here).
She had previously fled to Pakistan, but was deported back to Afghanistan.
She’s now in Italy “as part of the West’s evacuation of Afghans following the Taliban takeover of the country,” with assistance from the Italian government, Huffington Post said, which “will now help to get her integrated into life in Italy.”
Italy was among the Western countries that airlifted Afghans out of the country following the Taliban takeover 3 months ago. Gulla wasn’t one of those evacuees. Her transportation was arranged with help from non-profit groups after she requested assistance with leaving the country.
Gulla, a 12-year-old refugee in a Pakistan camp in 1984 when her portrait (right) was snapped by a photojournalist, eventually returned to her native village, and didn’t know she was famous until being located and identified in 2002 (story here). Now a widow, she was living in Kabul with her three children in a home given to her by the now-fallen Afghanistan government when the Taliban seized power.
