Afghan Biographies

Sharbat Gul Mrs.


Name Sharbat Gul Mrs.
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth 1970
Function/Grade National Geographic magazine cover girl
History and Biodata

3. Biodata:

Mrs. Sharbat Gul alias Sharbat Bibi Sharbat Gula Sharbat Gulla was born 1970 in Afghanistan. She was one of the students in an informal school in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in 1984 in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Pashtun by ethnicity, Gula's parents were killed during the Soviet Union's bombing of Afghanistan when she was around six years old. Along with her grandmother, brother, and three sisters, she walked across the mountains to Pakistan and ended up in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan in 1984.
 

She married Rahmat Gul between the age of 13-16, and returned to her village in Afghanistan in the mid 1990s. Gula has three daughters. A fourth daughter died in infancy. She expressed hopes that her children will be able to get an education.


In 2015, local newspapers in Pakistan reported that the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) canceled the Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) to Sharbat Bibi and two men listed as her sons. Reports claimed the national ID cards had been issued illegally. A NADRA source is quoted as saying "They may not be her sons but this is a common practice among Afghan refugees whereby they list names of non-relatives as their children to obtain documents." A relative stated that the family lives in Pakistan, but "We travel between Pakistan and Afghanistan depending on the security situation."

On 26 October 2016, Gula was arrested in Pakistan by the Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA) for living in the country using forged documents.

A Pakistani court has rejected the bail plea of Sharbat Gul immortalized on the cover of National Geographic magazine. Sharbat Gul, whose green eyes made her famous as a child refugee, was arrested in the northwestern city of Peshawar on October 26, 2016 for allegedly living on fraudulent identity papers. Gula has denied the charges. Prosecutor Mohsin Dawar said a court in Peshawar dismissed on November 2, 2016 a bail plea from Gula, citing lack of evidence to prove Pakistani citizenship. Gula’s lawyers had told the court that her four children depend on her and that she is suffering from hepatitis C.(20161103)

A court in Peshawar ordered Sharbat Gula to be deported to Afghanistan, a Pakistani prosecutor said Nov 03, 2016. Following a two-year investigation, she was accused of obtaining forged ID papers and living in Pakistan illegally. Prosecutor Mohsin Dawar said that Gula faced deportation after five days, when her 15-day jail sentence was to expire. The court also fined her 110,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,050; 946 euros). She pleaded guilty to the charges. Her four children will also return to Afghanistan with her. Gula said that her husband passed away several years ago. Kabul's ambassador to Islamabad, Dr. Omar Zakhirwal, said Afghan authorities would help her resettle in her native country. Another consulate official said her fine had already been paid and that she will be released on Monday, Nov 07, 2016)

 

 

Last Modified 2016-11-04
Established 2016-11-03