Afghan girl
You might remember this enigmatic face from several articles featured in the National Geographic, this girl appeared in the 1985 cover and since then there has been a great interest in the story behind the face. In 2002 the photographer that took this picture, Steve McCurry, together with a crew from the National Geographic went looking for her in the old refugee camp in Pakistan where he had first seen her. After several days of searching he finally found her whereabouts and organized an meeting. Her name is Sharbat Gula and she is Pashtun(ancient afghan tribe), behind her there's a story of war and lost. She became an orphan when she was only 6 years old due to the invasion of the Soviets, which left a path of destruction and death on it's wake. She and what was left of her family were forced to leave Afghanistan in search of a safer place to live, like many other Afghans. They had to endure extremly trying situations during their escape from Afghanistan and in the refugee camp, where they found "protection" later on, things were'nt easy either.
Sharbat Gula was 13 years old (approximately) at the time this picture was taken, 17 years later when McCurry and the National Geographic crew found her, you could easily see that life hadn't been easy on her. Though many years had gone by the countries problems were still serious.
In 1990, she went back to Afghanistan with a husband and there she now lives a calm life. The only thing she wishes was she had had a better education but as it is to late for her she wishes her daugthers could have the opportunities she did'nt had.
In an acknowledgement of her wish the National Geographic Society created the Afghan girl's fund ,now known as the Afghan children's fund, to help young Afghan girls to get a proper education.
There's of course a lot more to her story if you're interested you can go to:
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário