Afghan Girl Revealed

**malq** · July 17th, 2010, 02:58 PM

Many will remember the famous photo dubbed the Afghan girl. It was on the cover of National Geographic, undisputedly the symbol of the Afghan war. her picture has always haunted me. There was a 17 year search for her.
they found her.

Here was the photo then. most striking was her eyes and the fear and doubt within.

At the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in 1984, Gula's photograph was taken by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry.

Here she is now, with comparison. I see her eyes portraying a hard life but calmer. The terror is gone. What do you see?

Sharbat Gula is her name and her story is here.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/20...irl/index-text

**Valasca** · July 17th, 2010, 07:23 PM

DYJGTIT?
I saw this... what? Last year? year before? Idk. She still has those amazing eyes.

**Arallyn** · July 17th, 2010, 09:35 PM

I remember reading that article several years back- the reporter said that the only things that mattered to her now were her husband and children, and though she grasped the impact her original photo had (once they told her, don't think she knew it before), she didn't care and was just embarrassed about the fact that her shawl got burned while cooking the morning the photo was taken.

She looks so much older than her real age...

**guillotinegirl** · July 18th, 2010, 12:17 AM

Originally Posted by Arallyn

I remember reading that article several years back- the reporter said that the only things that mattered to her now were her husband and children, and though she grasped the impact her original photo had (once they told her, don't think she knew it before), she didn't care and was just embarrassed about the fact that her shawl got burned while cooking the morning the photo was taken.

She looks so much older than her real age...

Out of curiosity, how old was she when the photo was taken and how old is she now?

**Valasca** · July 18th, 2010, 12:23 AM

She is 28, perhaps 29, or even 30. No one, not even she, knows for sure. Stories shift like sand in a place where no records exist.

So she'd have been about 11 or 12 when this was taken.

**Arallyn** · July 18th, 2010, 12:27 AM

She was around 12 years old when the photo was taken (though she doesn't know her exact age). She is 29-ish in the "after" photo. I don't have the article in front of me but I think she has 3 daughters...she's wary of the US occupation (according to her husband... she didn't talk much just like pretty much every rural Afghan woman) but is grateful that she'll be able to keep sending her daughters to school so that they'll get the education that she never could.

**Arallyn** · July 18th, 2010, 12:27 AM

Or I could have clicked the link and read the actual article :P

Edit: Sorta disappointed that the article doesn't include the commentary by the people who searched for her that was in the issue after the article. But it's a great story nonetheless.

**malq** · July 18th, 2010, 12:29 AM

I am assuming at the time of this updated pic(2002) she is around 28-30 with a 14 year old daughter based on the story. She was married at 13 says her husband, she says 16.
the early pic was in 85.
So if I am doing the math right she was around 13 and 29 respectively.

Names have power, so let us speak of hers. Her name is Sharbat Gula, and she is Pashtun, that most warlike of Afghan tribes. It is said of the Pashtun that they are only at peace when they are at war, and her eyes—then and now—burn with ferocity. She is 28, perhaps 29, or even 30. No one, not even she, knows for sure. Stories shift like sand in a place where no records exist.