National Geographic’s Afghan Girl To Be Deported From Pakistan

The National Geographic’s famed green-eyed ‘Afghan Girl’ is lately learned to be deported from Pakistan after more than three decades living as a refugee in the country.

Named Sharbat Gula, the woman was jailed last week for eleven days on charges of possessing a forged Pakistani national identity card.

Currently in her 40s, Gula appeared on the cover of the iconic magazine in 1985 that paved the path of bestselling edition. She was just twelve years old then when photographer Steve McCurry snapped her at a Pakistani refugee camp. Despite becoming the most recognizable faces of the 20th century, her identity was unknown thereafter until in 2002 when the magazine tracked her again. She was living in poverty as a Pakistani refugee.

Pakistani authorities ordered her to serve 15 days in jail for forgery and to pay a fine of about $1,000.

Currently she was being treated for hepatitis C in Pakistan’s Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.

Pakistan has lately cracked down on millions of Afghan refugees citing security threat. Human rights groups said the refugees have been harassed and police have raided their houses to force them return to Afghanistan.

It is believed Afghan refugees in thousands are having fake Pakistani identity cards. They arrived in Pakistan following the 1979 Soviet invasion to Afghanistan.

The National Geographic Society meanwhile said, “She has lived a life beset by many challenges and much tragedy… Mrs. Sharbat Gula has never sought any notoriety, and she is trying to survive and support her family under highly adverse conditions.”

Gula’s husband Rahmat died about four years ago leaving three children and she is the sole breadwinner for them now.