No bailout for Nat Geo’s iconic green-eyed Afghan girl

A Pakistani court on Wednesday rejected bail application of an Afghan woman whose teenage portrait became one of the most iconic photos of Afghanistan’s decades-long conflict a week after she was detained in Pakistan for holding fake documents.

Sharbat Gula was to be freed on bail. However, a local court in Peshawar rejected her application in the fake document case.

The haunting image of Sharbat Gula, taken in a Pakistan refugee camp by photographer Steve McCurry in the 1980s, became the most famous cover image in the National Geographic magazine’s history.

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Gula last week for living in the country on fraudulent identity papers following a two-year investigation on her and her husband, who has absconded.

“I think I will have to review this case because she is a woman and we should see it from a humanitarian angle,” Pakistan interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a news conference on Sunday. “But if we withdraw charges against her, deport her or give her a temporary visa to leave Pakistan, then we will have to take back cases against the officials who issued her fake identity card, they are real culprits and I do not want to let them off the hook in any manner,” he said. “As a first step the FIA should arrange her bail as soon as possible so that she should get of jail,” Mr Khan added.

Pakistan has for decades provided safe haven for millions of Afghans who fled their country after the Soviet invasion of 1979. The country hosts 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees, according to UNHCR, making it the third-largest refugee hosting nation in the world.

The agency also estimates a further one million unregistered refugees are in the country.

Meanwhile, Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal showed disappointment to Court’s rejection of bail.