President Ghani Welcomes Nat Geo’s ‘Afghan Girl’ On Her Return

Famed Afghan woman Sharbat Gulla at the Presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday. (Photo: AP)

Afghan's president, Ashraf Ghani, welcomed back Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed "Afghan Girl" on Wednesday, offering her a furnished apartment after she was deported by Pakistan.

Her photo in the 1985 edition of National Geographic magazine became a symbol of her country's wars.

Also Read: Pakistan Deports Nat Geo’s Iconic ‘Afghan Girl’ to Afghanistan

Pakistan security officials escorted Gula overnight from a Peshawar hospital, where she had been staying since her arrest last month for living illegally in Pakistan, and handed her over to Afghan authorities at the Torkham border.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, poses for photographers during a meeting with National Geographic’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl,” Sharbat Gulla, and family. (Photo: AP)

Also Read: Bail Plea of NatGeo’s ‘Afghan Girl’ Rejected by Pakistani Court

Gula's deportation comes amid Pakistani pressure to send 2.5 million Afghan refugees back home even though Afghanistan is facing a bloody Taliban insurgency and would struggle to look after so many returnees.

“I welcome her back to the bosom of her motherland,” President Ashraf Ghani said with an expressionless Gula standing beside him during a small welcome-back ceremony at the palace in Kabul.

"I've said repeatedly, and I like to repeat it again, that our country is incomplete until we absorb all of our refugees."

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

Ghani promised to provide Gula with a furnished apartment to ensure she "lives with dignity and security in her homeland".

Gula did not comment during the ceremony, which her children also attended.

Gula had been living in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar for years with her children and husband, who died five years ago.

(Article has been edited for length.)