NG1985





The famous cover photo of the June 1985 issue was of an Afghan refugee, a young 13-year old girl with haunting green eyes. The photograph was taken in a small tented schoolroom by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry in a Peshawar, Pakistan refugee camp.

After the US-led invasion of Afghanistan a search was conducted for the (presumably grown) girl.

Remarkably, a National Geographic television film crew found her, and she was identified in 2002 as Sharbat Gula, a Pashtun woman married and living with her family, and quite unaware of her fame as a photographic subject. Steve McCurry again photographed Sharbat Gula for the second time in her life.

Her story was told in the April 2002 issue of National Geographic and in a National Geographic television documentary. She stated then that the two famous photos of her, the one from 1985 and the follow-up in 2002, were the only times she had ever been photographed.

A fund named after Gula was created and initially funded by the Society and contributed to by thousands of readers which resulted in a partnership between National Geographic and the Asia Foundation in the creation of a girls' school in Afghanistan that taught hundreds of teenage girls with both a vocational and basic education, in addition to a hot meal and health care. The funds also contributed to the construction of a public school for girls in Kabul