In the year of 1984 the portrait of the Afghan girl are taken by the popular photographer Steve McCurry and from that time to now 29 years have passed.
In this article, the story of the photograph of “Afghan Girl” is told. The photograph is taken by Steve McCurry in Pakistan in the Afghan Refugee camp. First of all, in the article it is mentioned that the taking moment of the photograph. Steve McCurry, the photographer, tells that he remembers when the photograph is taken; he expresses his emotions by giving some details such as the light of the photograph and the moment when he asks to the girl whether he can take the photograph of her. He says that she is very shy and in accordance with the photographer the scars of the war on the face of the girl represent the wounds on the humanity that are made by the war.
From that day to the now, the photograph of the Afghan Girl has become very popular all around the whole world. In the article, the second visiting of the Steve McCurry to the girl is narrated. In the year of the 2002, the photographer wants to find that girl again and to take another photograph of her and with his crew he starts to search for the girl. With the photograph of the girl, the crew goes to the Pakistan to find the girl and they ask to the people in the region of Nasir Bagh where the refugee camps are placed however they can’t find the girl on there. In the place, the man talks about the girl and he says that the girl go to the Afghanistan again and she is living with his children in the region of Tora Bora, and the Steve McCurry and his crew head for the Tora Bora region to find the girl. At the end of a long they reach the region and finally they can find the girl. The name of the girl is Sharbat Gula and Pasthun which is an Afghan tribe that is affected from the war too much. When it is looked the girl face, it is possible to see the sufferings of the war the article says. Her eyes are still bright however the case is not the same with her. Their life is like sand because of the war and they are always scattered.
These refugees are the people who are affected from the Russian Invasion, let’s imagine that in twenty-three years war 1,5 million killed and other 3,5 million refugees are available, from that point it can be possible to see the devastating effects of the war. The brother of the Sharbat Gula, Kashar Khan, says the reason of escaping from the Afghanistan that is because of the war and hundreds of the people like the family of Sharbat Gula abandon their country because of the war. He is going on his speech by expressing the destroying effects of the war. He says that “You never knew when the planes would come,” and even by thinking about that sentence it is possible to see the effects of the war to the physiology of the people. The article is going on by giving some information about the Sharbat Gula and detailed information about her life. Without knowing the popularity of her all around the whole world, the girl is living in Afghanistan and she is a Muslim girl. She has three children and because of the traditions of the region the women in there have to wear a dress that is called burqa. The husband of the girl, Rahmat Gul, works in Peshawar and he has bakery on there. He has some health problems he says. The article keeps giving some information about the man. At the end of the article, the reunion of the Steve McCurry and the Sharbat Gula is told. When the moment that the second photograph of sharbat Gula is taken, because of the traditions of the place, the girl can’t look at the eyes of another man except for her husband and at this point she just opens her burqa and poses for the second photograph of her to the Steve McCurry. The photographer expresses his feelings by saying the words when talking about the girl such as “Knife-thin odds, such loss, the girl’s expression’s being flat”
