The "Afghan Girl", who became famous after appearing on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985, was granted refugee status by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, bringing the story back into focus after the shocking portrait.
The photo taken in 1884 by photojournalist Steve McCurry shows a teenage girl with green eyes and a headscarf looking at the camera. The identity of the subject of the photo was not initially known, but in early 2002, he was identified as Sharbat Gula.
Gula was found at the age of 30 in a remote region of Afghanistan. Her identity was identified in 2002 through eye iris analysis. Sharbat also recalled being photographed. She had never seen the picture until 2002.
She was a Pashtun child living in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan when she was photographed.
"In 1985, thanks to a photograph by Steve McCurry, who last year portrayed him in a refugee camp in Peshawar for the cover of National Geographic magazine, Sharbat Gula gained global fame, to the point of symbolizing vicissitudes and "The conflicts that Afghanistan and its people were going through," said a statement issued by the Italian prime minister's office.
In 2016 McCurry told CNN the story behind the photo.
"I knew she had an extraordinary look, a penetrating look. "But there was a crowd of people around us, there was dust and it was time in front of digital cameras and you never knew what would happen to the film."
The photojournalist said he knew the photo was special since he shot it. "I told the editor of National Geographic, and he stood up and shouted, 'This is our next cover,'" he added.
Sharbat's photo was seen as the image of a refugee girl / woman housed in a remote camp, seeking protection from the west. She became a symbol of Afghanistan and was considered the third world Mona Lisa.
