Pakistan deports National Geographic’s iconic ‘Afghan Girl’ Sharbat Gulla

A Pakistani government official says National Geographic’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl” has been deported to Afghanistan.

A Pakistani government official says National Geographic’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl” has been deported to Afghanistan.

Pakistan's Inam Khan, owner of a book shop shows a copy of a magazine with the photograph of Afghan refugee woman Sharbat Gulla, from his rare collection in Islamabad, Pakistan, on October 26. (AP)

Fayaz Khan says Sharbat Gulla and her four children were handed over to Afghan authorities early on Wednesday at the Torkham border crossing, about 60 kilometers, or 37 miles, northwest of the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Gulla was arrested in late October on charges of carrying fake Pakistani ID papers and staying in Pakistan illegally. A Peshawar court later ordered her deported.

She gained international fame in 1984 as an Afghan refugee girl, after war photographer Steve McCurry’s photograph of her, with piercing green eyes, was published on National Geographic’s cover.

McCurry found her again in 2002. In 2014, she went into hiding after authorities accused her of buying fake Pakistani documents.