Nat Geo Afghan girl arrest: Now, photographer Steve McCurry offers to help

Steve McCurry had clicked the famous Nat Geo photograph in 1985. He has now offered to help Sharbat Gula who was arrested on Wednesday.

Photographer Steve McCurry has stepped in to offer help to Sharbat Gula who was arrested in Pehawar on Wednesday.

The award-winning McCurry has offered to provide legal and financial assistance to the Afghan girl whom he had captured through his lens 30 years ago. The 1985 picture by McCurry of a teenage Gula peering out of a National Geographic magazine cover had catapulted him into global acclaim.

In a Facebook post, McCurry expressed disbelief and vowed to provide her with any assistance and help that might be required.




Pakistani authorities on Wednesday had arrested the green-eyed Afghan woman who had come to symbolise her country's wars 30 years ago. Gula, who grew up in a refugee camp and is now in her 40s, is accused of having a forged Pakistani identity card.


Afghan Sharbat Gula, the 'Afghan Girl' who appeared on the cover of a 1985 edition of National Geographic magazine, waits ahead of a court hearing in Peshawar. (Image: AFP)

According to her brother-in-law Shahshad Khan, Gula is being held at a jail in Peshawar. He also claimed that Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had raided her home too.

She faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted of fraud.

Gula's arrest comes amid new Pakistani pressure to send 2.5 million Afghan refugees back to their home country, despite offensives by Taliban insurgents that kill and maim thousands each year.