I have had her picture pasted on my wall graffiti,months back.Never tried to find out who she is.My earlier version,was some cliched National geographic photo shots collector.And what did I do? I pasted em randomly on my wall.Her eyes speak of things,terrors,beauty,color et al.Today While reading umpteen articles,I found who is she. Naivete of mine.And now plagiarism.Oh,it's totally OK,as long as you adore the fundamentalism.Here she is:
" 'We've known her face, but we've not known her story, not even her name,' he said.
She was one of the world's most famous faces, yet no one knew who she was. Her image appeared on the front of magazines and books, posters, lapel pins, and even rugs, but she didn't know it. Now, after searching for 17 years, National Geographic has once again found the Afghan girl with the haunting green eyes.
In January 2002, a National Geographic team returned to the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan, where Sharbat Gula was originally photographed, to search for her.
She was identified through a series of contacts that led to her brother and husband, who agreed to ask her if she was willing to be interviewed.
Sharbat was located nearly two decades after her picture appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985. She had no idea her face had become an icon, said Steve McCurry, the photographer who made the famous portrait for National Geographic in 1984, and who tried to find her again during many subsequent trips he made to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
National Geographic set out to make one last concerted effort to find the "Afghan girl" before the refugee camp in Pakistan where she had last been seen was demolished.
From the camp, the trail wound through several villages and into at least one dead end, until someone recognized the girl on the cover of National Geographicand said he knew her brother. "The second I saw the color of her brother's eyes, I knew we had the right family," said Matson.
When they met again, McCurry told Sharbat her image had become famous as a symbol of the Afghan people. "I don't think she was particularly interested in her personal fame," McCurry said. "But she was pleased when we said she had come to be a symbol of the dignity and resilience of her people."
The award-winning photographer said his original image of Sharbat had seized the imagination of so many people around the world because her face, particularly her eyes, expressed pain and resilience as well as strength and beauty.
When Sharbat agreed to have her picture taken for the second time in her life, she came out from the secrecy of her veil to tell her story. She wanted the people around the world who knew her face to know that she survived the refugee camp in Pakistan.
According to Matson and McCurry, Sharbat Gula has returned to anonymity; the latest publicity about her name and face is unlikely to draw attention to her in Afghanistan. "She will not give another media interview and she wishes not to be contacted," Matson said. Her family has relocated to a different village in a remote part of Afghanistan, where she will continue to live her life in purdah, he added.
"Clearly she has become a symbol that National Geographic has used to illustrate the circumstances of refugees like her, and many people have inquired about her," he said. "She stood for an entire group of refugees, not just Afghan refugees. She has helped us with our mission of educating people about other cultures and regions—and she's helping us again by drawing attention to the lives of Afghan women and girls in general."
Weekends are part of knowing how people are doing and especially who are they? I'am sure,I kinda sound like going to and fro.She is one of those amazingly pretty women of the world.Just to let you know the before & after shots of her.Thanks for reading this.I have been thinking a lot,Like a lot about this,since morning.Peace out.
