Sharbat Gula, Iconic Afghan Girl, Becomes the Face of Pakistan’s Refugee Problem

Gula was one of millions of Afghan refugees who fled their homes to neighboring Pakistan following the Soviet Union’s invasion of their country in 1979.

by Asad Dandia

In 1984, the iconic photo of an Afghan refugee exposed to the world the human face of a crisis that until then had been represented by numbers and statistics alone. It was the photo of twelve-year-old Sharbat Gula, who was living in a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan at the time.

Gula was one of millions of Afghan refugees who fled their …