Summary The income from the photo helped a lot of orphans and widows, says the Afghan woman
LAHORE (Web Desk) – Sharbat Gulla, 1985 National Geographic cover-famed girl has said in an interview that she did not expect Pakistani government to behave ‘so harshly’.
In an interview with British Broadcasting Corporation after her return to Afghanistan 35 years later, she voiced her disappointment in Pakistani authorities for deporting her after over three decades of refuge.
Gulla served a 15-day imprisonment last year after she was arrested for illegally obtaining forged identity documents.
On return to her homeland, Afghanistan, after 35 years, she expressed extreme happiness and said that Afghan people helped her a lot and President Ashraf Ghani met her and her two children.
She told that her husband and eldest daughter died of Hepatitis C.
While talking about Steve McCurry’s iconic photo, she said that it created more problems than benefits for her.
Initially, she did not like being recognized from the Nat Geo photo but now she acknowledges the fame and respect that she gets from the people, she added.
The Afghan woman said that the income from the photo helped a lot of orphans and widows.
40-year-old Sharbat Gulla desires to set up a Non-government Organisation (NGO) to provide free-of-cost medical treatment to the people.
