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Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed Afghan woman immortalised on a National Geographic cover decades ago, was transported to Italy, according to the Italian government, on Thursday.
“Afghan national Sharbat Gula has landed in Rome,” the message read, without specifying a specific date.
“Organizing for her to travel to Italy as part of the larger evacuation programme in place for Afghan citizens, as well as the government’s plan for their reception and integration,” Rome said in response to pleas from non-profits working in Afghanistan to help her leave the Taliban-controlled country.
Gula is possibly Afghanistan’s most famous refugee after US photographer Steve McCurry photographed her in a Pakistan camp in the 1980s and published her portrait on the front cover of National Geographic magazine.
Gula claimed she arrived in Pakistan as an orphan four or five years after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, one of millions of Afghans seeking sanctuary across the border since then.
After being caught in Pakistan on false identification papers in 2016, she was deported back to Afghanistan.
Following the Taliban’s takeover of power in August, Rome announced in early September that it had evacuated about 5,000 Afghans.
After Maria Bashir, Afghanistan’s first female head prosecutor, arrived in the European country on September 9, Italy announced earlier this month that she had been granted citizenship.
Along with Germany, the United Kingdom, and Turkey, Italy was one of the top five countries contributing to NATO’s US-led campaign in Afghanistan.
