The Afghan Girl

My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6)

Her face became famous as the cover photograph on the June 1985 issue of National Geographic. Her image was named "the most recognized photograph" in the history of the magazine.

Her photograph has been widely used on Amnesty International brochures, posters, and calendars and has inspired artists the world over.

Photographer Stephen McCurry took his most recognized portrait, "Afghan Girl", in a refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. However, the identity of the "Afghan Girl" remained unknown for over 17 years until McCurry and a National Geographic team located the woman in 2002.

Her name is Sharbat Gula, and she had no idea that her face was world famous.

Sharbat had never seen her famous portrait before it was shown to her in January 2002. She had endured all manner of hardship and poverty in the intervening years despite her celebrity. Her village in the mountain foothills has no running water, so she fetches water from a stream. She can write her name but she cannot read and hopes that her 3 daughters will get the education that she never did. Highly unlikely, since she lives in a village that has no school.

“Sharbat has never known a happy day,” her brother says, “except perhaps the day of her marriage.”

One of the essential keys of living on purpose is to know the truth about who you are.

Learn more about developing empowering belief systems in the next post.

National Geographic