Steve McCurry, the photographer who shot the iconic photo of the Afghan girl with the haunting eyes reacted to the news of her arrest in Pakistan and said he will do everything to provide legal assistance to her.
In an official statement, he said:
I am committed to doing anything and everything possible to provide legal and financial support for her and her family. I object to this action by the authorities in the strongest possible terms. She has suffered throughout her entire life, and her arrest is an egregious violation of her human rights.
On Wednesday, news broke that the green-eyed ‘Afghan girl’ from the 1985 issue of National Geographic Magazine, Sharbat Gula, was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from the Nothia area of Pakistan for allegedly living in Pakistan with fraudulent identity documents.
McCurry tried to find Gula, who is now in her 40s, years after taking the photograph. He finally found her in Afghanistan and confirmed her identity using iris recognition. She had never seen her picture until 2002.
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