After the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, the Italian government said Thursday that the famous “Afghan girl” with green eyes of the magazine National Geographic has reached Italy as part of the evacuation of Afghans by the Western European countries.
The prime minister’s office Mario Draghi said Italy organized the evacuation of Sharbat Gulla after she asked to be helped out of the country. The Italian government will now help integrate her into life in Italy, the statement said.
Gulla gained international fame in 1984 as an Afghan refugee girl, after photographing the war photographer Steve McCurry did her, with piercing green eyes, was published on the cover of National Geographic. McCurry found her again in 2002.
In 2014, it appeared in Pakistan, but she went into hiding when the authorities accused her of buying a fake Pakistani identity card and ordered her deportation.
They flew her to Kabul, where the president offered him a reception at the presidential palace and gave him the keys to a new apartment.
Italy grants asylum to Afghans after Taliban take power
Italy It was one of several Western countries that airlifted hundreds of Afghans out of the country following the departure of US forces and the seizure of power by the taliban in August.
In a statement announcing the arrival of Gulla to Rome, Draghi’s office said his photograph had come to “symbolize the vicissitudes and conflict of the chapter in history by which Afghanistan and his people were going through at that time. ”
He said he had received requests “from civil society, and in particular from non-profit organizations working in Afghanistan,” supporting Gulla’s request for help to leave the country.
Italy organized his trip “as part of a larger evacuation program for Afghan citizens and the government’s plan for their reception and integration,” the statement said.