THE AFGHAN MONA LISA


"Her eyes have been haunting for ages". These are the words of the famous journalist Steve McCurry of National Geographic. This is about the adolescent girl with the intense green eyes and red headscarf namely Sharbat Gula (born on 20 March 1972), who appeared in the cover picture of National Geographic in June 1985. 

She was an immigrant when Russia invaded Afghan. She was in Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan when she was captured. In 1984 McCurry was visiting the refugee camps in Pakistan. That time he has got a glimpse of her eyes. He tried to take pictures of her. First she refused and cooperated later. It became the cover image of the National Geographic magazine with a headline 'The haunted eyes tells the fear of an Afghan refugee'. It became popular.This is one of the most iconic cover picture of National Geographic. McCurry's life too changed after the incident. Even though she has become famous, her details were unknown until 2002. 

After 17 years McCurry searched for her. He met her and thanked her for being a great part of his career. That day he took another cover picture for National Geographic with her holding the first book of National Geographic.


In 2016 Pakistan Govn. Decided to find and arrest people who were living there with fake id. At that time she was a widow and her husband was in Pakistan. She got arrested. The whole world came to her rescue and spoke for her release. Due to this Pak government freed her from the prison. Afghan called them back and promised her a better life. Until 2017 she didn't get the promised home by the Afghan government. She returned to her birthplace and gave an interview. In it she says "in my first photo the seriousness on my face was not a refugee's but a student's. I was in class and studying. It was my anger towards the photographer on my face that you see." She is a Pashtun(a member of Pashto-speaking people inhabiting southern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan) , who never engage with strangers. She loves to study very much and always says "I can write my name". She knows that in Afghan getting education for girls is difficult. Now another green eyed red scarfed Afghani refugee girl of age nine reminds her. Heather Barr, a researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) who has worked in Afghanistan for 10 years told about Sharbat Gula " The woman is a symbol of Afghan and also a symbol of Pakistan". 

Recently when Taliban attacked Afghan wasn't she in the country? What happened to her? Where would she have gone...?


Rameesa Jahan

I BA Functional English

Al Shifa College of Arts and Science

Keezhattur


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