PESHAWAR - A local court on Friday sent Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed Afghan girl, who won the worldwide fame when photographed by NatGeo decades ago, and arrested for possessing a forged Pakistani identity card, was sent on 14-day judicial remand.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials produced her before the court of Judicial Magistrate Jamil Khan on charges of living in Pakistan on forged identity papers. The Afghan woman, who got global fame after a 1984 issue of National Geographic magazine published her picture on its cover, was sent to Central Jail Peshawar on a 14-day judicial remand after she denied having a fake Pakistani computerised national identity card (CNIC).
The court fixed November 11 as next date of hearing. The Afghan woman, now in her 40s, was arrested by the FIA from the Nothia locality of Peshawar some three days ago.
At least three National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) officials were also suspended for allegedly issuing her the CNIC illegally. Sharbat Gula was being investigated by the Pakistani FIA after it discovered that she had been living in the country with forged identity documents.
Her intense stare at the camera of Steve McCurry, the National Geographic journalist who photographed her at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in 1984, was later likened to the famous ‘Mona Lisa' painting. McCurry later began a search for her and after several unsuccessful attempts he found her in Afghanistan 17 years later and confirmed her identity using iris recognition. She first saw her picture in 2002.