Sharbat Gula Speaks About the Bitter Consequences of Unwanted Fame.
Sharbat Gula, the Afghan woman whose iconic green-eyed photograph appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in the 1980s and became a global symbol of Afghan suffering and displacement, has spoken about the heavy personal cost of that fame.
She said that while the image deeply moved the world, it led her life down a painful path. In a recent interview, Sharbat Gula explained that the unwanted fame exposed her to years of social pressure, judgmental stares, and lasting psychological distress experiences that remained largely unseen by the public.
Emphasizing that the fame was never “easy or pleasant,” she said that if she had been given a choice, she would have preferred the photograph never to be published.
She also announced plans to publish a book in the near future, recounting her full life story after the photo describing it as the untold narrative of a woman who lived for decades behind one of the most famous images in the history of photography.
