The portrait of a young girl with an aghast facial expression suddenly became one of the most famous faces in photography ever seen. Name the person and interpret her life story.
ANSWER: Sharbat Gula, an Afghan woman of Pashtun ethnicity. Forced to leave her home in Afghanistan during the Soviet war to a refugee camp in Pakistan where she was photographed by journalist Steve McCurry. The image made her famous when it was featured on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic Magazine, at a time when she was approximately 13 years old. Gula was known throughout the world simply as the Afghan Girl until she was formally identified in early 2002. (source : Wikipedia)
16 November, 2007
(120) The Mysterious Gaze
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2 answers:
Sharbat Gula, an Afghan girl of the Pashtun tribe. She is now between 28 and 30, nobody knows for sure, even herself.
Her family was caught up in the Soviet invasion. After her parents were killed in a Societ bombing run, they fled Afghanistan due to the fighting. She, her brother, and sisters, led by their grandmother WALKED to Pakistan, much through snow covered mountains. Eventually they ended up in a refugee camp.
In the mid 90's she went home to her village in the Afpghanistani mountains.
Her identity was confirmed using biometric technology which matched her iris patterns to those of the photograph with almost full certainty. She vividly recalled being photographed – it was the first and only time she had ever had her picture taken. The fame and symbolic character of her portrait were completely unknown to her.
Modern pictures of her were featured as part of a cover story on her life in the April 2002 issue of National Geographic and was the subject of a television documentary, entitled Search for the Afghan Girl, which aired in March 2002. In recognition of her, National Geographic set up the Afghan Girls Fund, a charitable organization with the goal of educating Afghan women.
Well done, techfun! It seems you're in the lead now !
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