Nat Geo’s ‘Afghan Girl’ Insists She Didn’t Get a Fake Pakistani ID

She was detained in Peshawar on Wednesday on charges of holding a fake Pakistani identity card.

The green-eyed ‘Afghan girl’ from the 1985 issue of National Geographic Magazine, is etched in everyone’s minds because of the haunting and intense look on her face.

(Photo Courtesy: National Geographic)

A Pakistani prosecutor says National Geographic's famed green-eyed 'Afghan Girl' has made her first appearance before a court, insisting she did not fraudulently obtain Pakistani nationality.

Sharbat Gulla, during Friday's court hearing, reportedly retracted the confession that investigators say she had made after her arrest. She was detained on Wednesday in the northwestern city of Peshawar on charges of holding a fake Pakistani identity card.

Gulla, who is now in her 40s, had been under investigation by Pakistani authorities for living in Pakistan with fraudulent identity documents.

She was an Afghan refugee when she gained worldwide fame in 1984 after war photographer Steve McCurry's photograph of her, with piercing green eyes, was published on the cover of National Geographic.

McCurry found her again in Afghanistan in 2002.

She surfaced in Pakistan in 2014, but went into hiding when Pakistani authorities accused her of buying a fake Pakistani identity card.

Also Read: Will Provide Legal Help to Jailed ‘Afghan Girl’: Steve McCurry

(With inputs from AP)