Sharbat Gula, symbol of Afghan refugees, is safe in Rome. Steve McCurry's iconic portrait of her.

Sharbat Gula, the woman who became famous for the iconic shot that Steve McCurry took in 1984, a portrait known as the Afghan Girl to whom the photographer dedicated the following year the cover of National Geographic, has arrived in Rome.

This was made known in a note published Nov. 25 by the Prime Minister’s Office: “Afghan citizen Sharbat Gula has arrived in Rome [...] Responding to the urging of those in civil society and in particular among nonprofit organizations active in Afghanistan who, after the events of last August, took up Sharbat Gula’s appeal to be helped to leave her country, the Prime Minister’s Office has propitiated and organized her transfer to Italy, in the broader context of the program of evacuation of Afghan citizens and the government’s plan for their reception and integration.”

Today Sharbat Gula is forty-nine years old; at the time of the famous shot depicting her face, with magnetic green eyes, framed by a red veil, she was just twelve years old and in a refugee camp in Peshawar. In 2002 McCurry had returned to find her in Afghanistan: it was only then that she discovered she was known worldwide for that shot; he photographed her again, scarred by time and hardship. After being charged and arrested for using false documents to return to her country (she had moved to Pakistan with her three daughters in 1992), she returned to Afghanistan in 2016, where she was welcomed by then-President Ashraf Ghani, who gave her the keys to an apartment in Kabul. Last summer, however, with the return of the Taliban, she once again tried to flee to safety. Now she will enter one of the Italian government’s shelter projects.

The photographer wrote on social media, "My sister Bonnie and I are delighted to announce that together with the British charity, Future Brilliance, and its founder, Sophia Swire, the support of the Italian government, and Metagood, NFT’s platform for Social Good, we were able to bring the symbol of Afghan refugees, Sharbat Gula, to safety. We are grateful for this humanitarian gesture of the Italian government."

Sharbat Gula, symbol of Afghan refugees, is safe in Rome. Steve McCurry's iconic portrait of her.

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