Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

National Geographic Finds Girl in Famed Photo
Yahoo News (Reuters) ^ | Wed Mar 13,10:44 AM ET | Sue Pleming

Posted on 03/13/2002 10:15:56 AM PST by ThePythonicCow

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For nearly two decades, National Geographic (news - web sites) has been flooded with requests for information about a beautiful Afghan teen-ager with piercing green eyes whose cover image became one of its most recognized photographs.

Photos

Reuters Photo
But the woman's identity has only just been uncovered after the National Geographic photographer who first saw her in a refugee camp in Pakistan 18 years ago, finally tracked down the woman in a remote village south of Jalalabad, Afghanistan (news - web sites).

"Every time I went there (to Afghanistan or Pakistan), I asked about her, but I never had any leads," freelance photographer Steve McCurry, who took the picture for National Geographic in 1984, told Reuters.

McCurry says hardly a day has gone by that people have not asked him about the young woman, whose name he did not take down when he took her picture for the January 1985 cover of National Geographic.

This January, he returned with a National Geographic team to the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan where he took the picture and found someone who said he grew up with the woman's brother.

"The refugee camp was set to close and so I knew this was my only chance to find her," said McCurry. "I couldn't believe it when the brother finally turned up with his sister. I knew immediately it was her."

The woman, who is now about 30 years old, was identified as Sharbat Gula. She remembered McCurry taking the picture but had never seen a copy of it and was surprised and embarrassed by all the attention it attracted.

Gula got married shortly after McCurry first saw her and had four daughters, one of whom died in infancy. She was repatriated from the camp in 1992 and returned to Afghanistan with her family.

Her life had been tough in Afghanistan and McCurry said she had struggled to survive.

"What the second picture shows is that she is still alive and survived quite well in fact ... but that pain and hardship is still written in her face. It is not a face of joy," he added.

NEW PHOTOS TAKEN

A conservative Pashtun, Gula sought her husband's permission to lift her veil to show her face for the latest photographs, which appear in National Geographic's April edition.

McCurry said he saw Gula as a representative of the plight of the Afghan people, who endured an extended war with the Soviet Union and the rise and fall of the Taliban.

"She's really emblematic of the Afghan spirit," he said, adding that a education fund had been set up by National Geographic for young Afghan girls.

National Geographic used several scientific methods to ensure they had found the right woman, including iris recognition in which the colored portion of the eye is examined.

No two human irises are the same and a direct match holds a near 100 percent probability of authenticity, National Geographic said. The woman's eyes were found to be a perfect match.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: nationalgeographic
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-102 next last
To: philosofy123
I have seen this cover years ago. My problem is today, after we liberated these worthless people, the woman is still in fear of showing her face. She, and the rest of the women there are still wearing this tent over their heads. They are either stupid, or we are fooling ourselves that we did them a favor.

No, we're fooling ourselves that they are a civilized culture. I predict that Afghanistone will sink further into prehistoric savage "society", Taliban or not. It's the culture, stupid. (no offense with the stupid)

41 posted on 03/13/2002 11:17:34 AM PST by IDontLikeToPayTaxes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Hillary's Lovely Legs
I'm sure that National Geographic paid her a million dollars for her photo that they have made a mint off of.
42 posted on 03/13/2002 11:22:01 AM PST by Pure Country
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Lancey Howard
Absolutely sage advice. I remember dating a really lovely girl and then meeting her mother when I was invited over for dinner. The mother's rear-end was the size of a couple of pallets. It was freakish. So I went fishing in deeper seas. When I ran into the girl just three years later, she had the same affliction as her mother. Phew!

LOL!! You guys are killin' me! Have you two been looking in my play book?? I thought I was the only guy that employed those types of techniques.

43 posted on 03/13/2002 11:22:21 AM PST by IDontLikeToPayTaxes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: IDontLikeToPayTaxes
LOL!! You guys are killin' me! Have you two been looking in my play book?? I thought I was the only guy that employed those types of techniques.

It works for other body parts wink wink. I recall my older brother alerting me to this while I was in Junior High School. He pointed out young prospects based on what their older sisters looked like....itf you get what I mean.

44 posted on 03/13/2002 11:27:19 AM PST by 1Old Pro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: philosofy123
I don't live in a world of hate.

I spent Monday evening with a man who was with an American contingent in Afghanistan. He told me of everything that was going on with the government, the people and the war. So you can think what you want about the Afghans, I know how it is from someone who was there less than a week ago.

45 posted on 03/13/2002 11:30:06 AM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: EggsAckley
To all of you on this thread who are putting down ... National Geographic: get a life!

National Geographic is a liberal rag of the highest degree.

If that's a put-down, so be it.
46 posted on 03/13/2002 11:37:50 AM PST by newgeezer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Beelzebubba
"How many 30-year-old women look that nice without makeup?"

Most of them, but the brainwashing for dollars has put masks on their natural looks.

47 posted on 03/13/2002 11:41:26 AM PST by Dust in the Wind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: newgeezer
yep, diversity, multiculturalism, environmentalism, the PETA agenda, etc...
48 posted on 03/13/2002 11:41:54 AM PST by 1Old Pro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: newgeezer
National Geographic is a liberal rag of the highest degree.

Megga dittos

49 posted on 03/13/2002 11:49:10 AM PST by biblewonk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: ThePythonicCow
What? No Burqua!?! Stone her!!!
50 posted on 03/13/2002 11:52:56 AM PST by Destructor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hillary's Lovely Legs
You are right. The clowns on this thread who comment on her looks are the same ones who would be the first to accuse Hollywood and the Media for selling us the image of perfection instead of integrity.

For this woman to even be alive, let alone raising a family under the conditions she must endure, is a testament to the strength of the human spirit. She has been tested her entire life in ways that we can't fully imagine. I doubt that many of these yahoos have her character. She was a gift to us then. She is a gift to us now.

51 posted on 03/13/2002 11:59:51 AM PST by wtc911
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Roger Young
"A couple of pipes of...heroin a day..."

Do you always confuse being clever with sounding like an idiot?

52 posted on 03/13/2002 12:02:21 PM PST by wtc911
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: ThePythonicCow
She doesn't look that bad. Rather attractive, actually, given the circumstances.

Instead of casting attention to her physical appearance, it seems better to thank God that after all these years she was there to be found, alive and healthy.

53 posted on 03/13/2002 12:06:50 PM PST by Darth Sidious
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: oldvike
In her pic on the left those are the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. Striking.

You are so correct-I remember seeing that pic in 1985,just out of High School and thinking 'Wow,if she was in America,guys would be be drooling over her'.Remember when that 1st Pic was taken,Both her parents were dead,so lighten up people,Geez! And the fact she has survived all these years in Afghanistan is simply a miracle!

54 posted on 03/13/2002 12:18:50 PM PST by Pagey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Pagey
I feel so bad for this woman. It makes you realize how easy we have it.
55 posted on 03/13/2002 12:26:22 PM PST by smithson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: Guna
The article says they did an analysis of her eyes...eyes are a "fingerprint" so to speak...there are no two alike...and she is the perfect match. There is no question it is the same woman.
56 posted on 03/13/2002 12:30:16 PM PST by sonserae
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: wtc911
I'm so glad to see a few more sane people stepping up to defend this woman.
What a bunch of Neanderthals! The more it gets like this, the more I start having doubts about FR.
Thanks for your input.
57 posted on 03/13/2002 12:42:03 PM PST by EggsAckley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: sonserae
I was wondering why they went through all of that. Why couldn't they just take the word of the woman and the photographer?
58 posted on 03/13/2002 1:04:37 PM PST by Shooter 2.5
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: Guna
I agree, those noses are not the same.
59 posted on 03/13/2002 1:06:33 PM PST by kassie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Shooter 2.5
Because of people like Guna and Kassie that doubt that it's the same woman.
60 posted on 03/13/2002 1:09:49 PM PST by sonserae
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-102 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson