Steve McCurry’s photographed of a green eyed beautiful Afghan girl, Sharbat Gula, in 1984. Her portrait became most famous and was selected as the cover of National Geographic 100 Best Pictures. During many subsequent visits to Afghanistan & Pakistan, McCurry tried to find her again, but was not successful.
In 1992, the National Geographic team returned to Pakistan to search for her. Through a series of contacts, she was identified. Her husband and brother finally agreed to allow her to be interviewed. She never knew that she had become so famous in the meanwhile. Since Sharbat Gula lives a traditional Muslim life she was not allowed to meet men outside her family. However, the Geographic team could send a female photographer to meet Sharbat and photograph her face again. After another photo was taken it was sent to obtain verification through iris-scanning technology and face-recognition techniques used by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to see if it was the same girl who was pictured 17 years ago. Later when the Afghan girl met Steve McCurry they recognized each other.
The Afghan girl had married and has 4 daughters. Since the family didn’t want to get interviewed by many reporters so the family relocated to a different village in a remote part of Afghanistan, where she continues to live her life.
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