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The photo »Afghan Girl« at a Steve Curry exhibition in Erfurt (2014)
Photo: Jens Meyer / AP
Piercing green eyes look suspiciously frightened from the face of an Afghan girl in a red veil: The photo of the refugee Sharbat Gula by photographer Steve McCurry became world-famous in the mid-1980s - as a symbol of the suffering of the Afghan people at that time.
Now Gula has been flown from Afghanistan to Italy.
She is now in her late 40s. "The Afghan citizen Sharbat Gula has arrived in Rome," said the Italian government on Thursday.
Rome "made possible and organized" her departure.
The woman asked to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban came to power, it said.
Aid organizations had carried the appeal on.
The Draghi government then organized Gula's departure to Italy in connection with the evacuation plan for Afghan citizens.
Alongside the USA, Turkey, Great Britain and Germany, Italy was the most heavily involved in the evacuation mission from Kabul after the Taliban took power there in August.
About 123,000 people were flown out of Afghanistan via the international airlift within a few weeks.
The photographer McCurry photographed Gula in the Pakistani refugee camp Nasir Bagh in 1984.
This is where the girl fled during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
The recording appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine the following year.
“Afghan Girl” stood for the plight of Afghan refugees who found a friendly welcome in Pakistan.
In 2016, Gula was sent back to her homeland as Pakistan increased pressure on Afghan refugees to leave the country.
After the cover with her photo appeared, Gula's trace was initially lost.
After the end of the Taliban rule, McCurry and his team were able to track them down again in 2002.
"The photo and the girl had become part of my photographic work," said McCurry about his search for Gula.
"Not knowing what had happened to her, I felt incredibly relieved to find out that she survived."
aar / dpa / AFP