Free Republic

An Afghan woman immortalised on the cover of  National Geographic magazine in 1985 as a  green-eyed 12-year-old has been arrested  in Pakistan for holding fake identity papers, officials say. Sharbat Gula could face a fine and up to 14 years in jail. "I object to this action by the authorities in the strongest possible terms. She has suffered throughout her entire life, and her arrest is an egregious violation of her human rights."

The green-eyed Afghan refugee girl whose iconic photograph captured the world’s attention three decades ago has been arrested for living illegally in Pakistan with fraudulent documents. Pakistani police arrested Sharbat Gula, now married and in her forties, at her home in Peshawar on Tuesday, just a few miles from the border camp where the famous National Geographic cover image was taken in 1984. Her arrest followed reports that she, like many Afghans, had illegally procured false Pakistani identity cards - for herself and two men she claimed were her sons - in order to remain in the country.

Ten-year-old Romany sits in the same room where his family huddled together nearly three weeks ago, afraid for their lives, as a violent mob attacked their house. His family had fled to this room on the top floor, where pictures of Jesus and Coptic saints hang on bare cement walls. His parents dragged heavy furniture to the door, barricading it as they heard people try to break in below. The mob was throwing rocks at the windows, and he heard gunfire, says Romany. They were cursing Christians. "We kept praying that G0d would be with us," says the fourth-grader. "And...