National Geographic’s famed ‘girl’ denies getting fake ID

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 Oct. 26. A Pakistani investigator says the police have arrested National Geographic’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl” for having a fake Pakistani identity card. Shahid Ilyas from the Federal Investigation Agency says the police arrested Sharbat Gulla during a raid on Wednesday at a home in Peshawar. AP

PESHAWAR, Pakistan—A Pakistani prosecutor says National Geographic’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl” has made her first appearance before a court, insisting she did not fraudulently obtain Pakistani nationality.

Manzoor Aalam said Sharbat Gulla, during Friday’s court hearing, essentially retracted the confession that investigators say she made after her arrest. She was detained Wednesday in the northwestern city of Peshawar on charges of holding a fake Pakistani identity card.

Gulla was an Afghan refugee when she gained worldwide fame in 1984 after war photographer Steve McCurry’s photograph of her, with piercing green eyes, was published on the cover of National Geographic.

McCurry found her again in Afghanistan in 2002.

She surfaced in Pakistan in 2014, but went into hiding when Pakistani authorities accused her of buying a fake Pakistani identity card./rga