ROME — National Geographic magazine’s famous green-eyed “Afghan Girl” has arrived in Italy as part of the West’s evacuation of Afghans after the Taliban took over the country, the Italian government announced Thursday.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office said Italy arranged the evacuation of Sharbat Gulla after she asked for help to leave the country. The Italian government will now help him integrate into life in Italy, the statement said.
Gulla rose to international fame in 1984 as an Afghan refugee. After the war, photographer Steve McCurry’s photograph of her, with piercing green eyes, appeared on the cover of National Geographic. McCurry tracked her down in 2002.
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In 2014, she surfaced in Pakistan but went into hiding when authorities accused her of buying a fake Pakistani identity card and ordered her deportation. She was flown to Kabul where the president hosted a reception for her at the presidential palace and handed her the keys to a new apartment.
Italy was one of several Western countries to airlift hundreds of Afghans out of the country after US forces left and the Taliban took control in August.
In a statement announcing Gulla’s arrival in Rome, Draghi’s office said his photograph had become “symbolic of the vicissitudes and conflict of the chapter of history that Afghanistan and its people were going through at the time.”
He said he received requests “from members of civil society, and in particular non-profit organizations working in Afghanistan” supporting Gulla’s call for help to leave the country.
Italy organized his trip to Italy “as part of the broader evacuation program in place for Afghan citizens and the government’s plan for their reception and integration,” the statement said.
