Her eyes have captivated the world since she appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. This is the life of the woman revealed beyond the captivating snapshot of a young girl.
By Cathy Newman, National Geographic, April 2002
She remembers the moment. The photographer took her picture. She remembers her anger. The man was a stranger. She had never been photographed before. Until they met again 17 years later, she had not been photographed since.
The photographer remembers the moment too. The light was soft. The refugee camp in Pakistan was a sea of tents. Inside the school tent he noticed her first. Sensing her shyness, he approached her last. She told him he could take her picture. "I didn't think the photograph of the girl would be different from anything else I shot that day," he recalls of that morning in 1984 spent documenting the ordeal of Afghanistan's refugees.
The portrait by Steve McCurry turned out to be one of those images that sears the heart, and in June 1985 it ran on the cover of this magazine. Her eyes are sea green. They are haunted and haunting, and in them you can read the tragedy of a land drained by war. She became known around National Geographic as the "Afghan girl," and for 17 years no one knew her name.
In January a team from National Geographic Television & Film's EXPLORER brought McCurry to Pakistan to search for the girl with green eyes. They showed her picture around Nasir Bagh, the still standing refugee camp near Peshawar where the photograph had been made. A teacher from the school claimed to know her name. A young woman named Alam Bibi was located in a village nearby, but McCurry decided it wasn't her.
No, said a man who got wind of the search. He knew the girl in the picture. They had lived at the camp together as children. She had returned to Afghanistan years ago, he said, and now lived in the mountains near Tora Bora. He would go get her.
It took three days for her to arrive. Her village is a six-hour drive and three-hour hike across a border that swallows lives. When McCurry saw her walk into the room, he thought to himself: This is her.
Names have power, so let us speak of hers. Her name is Sharbat Gula, and she is Pashtun, that most warlike of Afghan tribes. It is said of the Pashtun that they are only at peace when they are at war, and her eyes—then and now—burn with ferocity. She is 28, perhaps 29, or even 30. No one, not even she, knows for sure. Stories shift like sand in a place where no records exist.
Time and hardship have erased her youth. Her skin looks like leather. The geometry of her jaw has softened. The eyes still glare; that has not softened. "She's had a hard life," said McCurry. "So many here share her story." Consider the numbers. Twenty-three years of war, 1.5 million killed, 3.5 million refugees: This is the story of Afghanistan in the past quarter century.
Now, consider this photograph of a young girl with sea green eyes. Her eyes challenge ours. Most of all, they disturb. We cannot turn away.
"There is not one family that has not eaten the bitterness of war," a young Afghan merchant said in the 1985 National Geographic story that appeared with Sharbat's photograph on the cover. She was a child when her country was caught in the jaws of the Soviet invasion. A carpet of destruction smothered countless villages like hers. She was perhaps six when Soviet bombing killed her parents. By day the sky bled terror. At night the dead were buried. And always, the sound of planes, stabbing her with dread.
"We left Afghanistan because of the fighting," said her brother, Kashar Khan, filling in the narrative of her life. He is a straight line of a man with a raptor face and piercing eyes. "The Russians were everywhere. They were killing people. We had no choice."
Shepherded by their grandmother, he and his four sisters walked to Pakistan. For a week they moved through mountains covered in snow, begging for blankets to keep warm.
"You never knew when the planes would come," he recalled. "We hid in caves."
The journey that began with the loss of their parents and a trek across mountains by foot ended in a refugee camp tent living with strangers.
"Rural people like Sharbat find it difficult to live in the cramped surroundings of a refugee camp," explained Rahimullah Yusufzai, a respected Pakistani journalist who acted as interpreter for McCurry and the television crew. "There is no privacy. You live at the mercy of other people." More than that, you live at the mercy of the politics of other countries. "The Russian invasion destroyed our lives," her brother said.
It is the ongoing tragedy of Afghanistan. Invasion. Resistance. Invasion. Will it ever end? "Each change of government brings hope," said Yusufzai. "Each time, the Afghan people have found themselves betrayed by their leaders and by outsiders professing to be their friends and saviors."
In the mid-1990s, during a lull in the fighting, Sharbat Gula went home to her village in the foothills of mountains veiled by snow. To live in this earthen-colored village at the end of a thread of path means to scratch out an existence, nothing more. There are terraces planted with corn, wheat, and rice, some walnut trees, a stream that spills down the mountain (except in times of drought), but no school, clinic, roads, or running water.
Here is the bare outline of her day. She rises before sunrise and prays. She fetches water from the stream. She cooks, cleans, does laundry. She cares for her children; they are the center of her life. Robina is 13. Zahida is three. Alia, the baby, is one. A fourth daughter died in infancy. Sharbat has never known a happy day, her brother says, except perhaps the day of her marriage.
Her husband, Rahmat Gul, is slight in build, with a smile like the gleam of a lantern at dusk. She remembers being married at 13. No, he says, she was 16. The match was arranged.
He lives in Peshawar (there are few jobs in Afghanistan) and works in a bakery. He bears the burden of medical bills; the dollar a day he earns vanishes like smoke. Her asthma, which cannot tolerate the heat and pollution of Peshawar in summer, limits her time in the city and with her husband to the winter. The rest of the year she lives in the mountains.
At the age of 13, Yusufzai, the journalist, explained, she would have gone into purdah, the secluded existence followed by many Islamic women once they reach puberty.
"Women vanish from the public eye," he said. In the street she wears a plum-colored burka, which walls her off from the world and from the eyes of any man other than her husband. "It is a beautiful thing to wear, not a curse," she says.
Faced by questions, she retreats into the black shawl wrapped around her face, as if by doing so she might will herself to evaporate. The eyes flash anger. It is not her custom to subject herself to the questions of strangers.
Had she ever felt safe?
"No. But life under the Taliban was better. At least there was peace and order."
Had she ever seen the photograph of herself as a girl?
"No."
She can write her name, but cannot read. She harbors the hope of education for her children. "I want my daughters to have skills," she said. "I wanted to finish school but could not. I was sorry when I had to leave."
Education, it is said, is the light in the eye. There is no such light for her. It is possibly too late for her 13-year-old daughter as well, Sharbat Gula said. The two younger daughters still have a chance.
The reunion between the woman with green eyes and the photographer was quiet. On the subject of married women, cultural tradition is strict. She must not look—and certainly must not smile—at a man who is not her husband. She did not smile at McCurry. Her expression, he said, was flat. She cannot understand how her picture has touched so many. She does not know the power of those eyes.
Such knife-thin odds. That she would be alive. That she could be found. That she could endure such loss. Surely, in the face of such bitterness the spirit could atrophy. How, she was asked, had she survived?
The answer came wrapped in unshakable certitude.
"It was," said Sharbat Gula, "the will of God."
SOURCE: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text
Afghanistan overview
Helmand Province, Afghanistan
July 24, 2010
CUISINE
Variety of Afghan food
Qabuli Palao with lamb
Afghan lamb kebab with Saffron rice.
- Popular Afghan dishes:
- * Mosh Palau
- * Do Pyaza
- * Kichiri
- * Bendee/Baumya (cooked Okra w/potatoes and tomatoes)
- * Ashak
- * Baghlava
- * Bolani
- * Shor-Nakhod (Chick peas w/special toppings)
- * Naan (Afghan bread)
- Afghan deserts
- * Halwa
- * Ferni
- * Jelabi
- * Maleeda, Khajoor
SOURCE: http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Culture%20of%20Afghanistan/
LITERATURE & POETRY
Afghanistan has a rich literary as well as oral based poetic and storytelling tradition. Ancient folk lore and legends told through song and storytelling continue to thrive today. During the medieval period literature was written in Dari, Pashto, Turkic and Arabic. The royal courts of regional empires such as the Samanids, the Ghaznavids, the Timurids, and the Mughals, were great patrons of Persian literature supporting literary geniuses like Rumi, Rudaki, Abdullah Ansari, Ferdowsi, Jami.
I Came
From the un-manifest I came,
And pitched my tent, in the Forest of Material existence.
I passed through mineral and vegetable kingdoms,
Then my mental equipment carried me into the animal kingdom;
Having reached there I crossed beyond it;
Then in the crystal clear shell of human heart
I nursed the drop of self in a pearl,
And in association with good men
Wandered round the Prayer House,
And having experienced that, crossed beyond it;
Then I took the road that leads to Him,
And became a slave at His gate;
Then the duality disappeared
And I became absorbed in Him.
- - Abdullah Ansari
One of the most important works of this period was the Dari epic poem Shah Nameh (The Book of Kings), completed in 1010 by Firdawsi and comprising 60,000 rhyming couplets. Another famous poet, Jalalaluddin Rumi Balkhi (1207-1273, also known as Rumi) from Balkhi, is considered one of the greatest Sufi poets. Much of his writings have been translated from Farsi into English.
Our eyes do not see you,
but we have this excuse:
Eyes see surface, not reality,
though we keep hoping,
in this lovely place.
- Rumi
In the 16th-18th centuries, many literary figures originated from Afghanistan but due to the partition of the region between Safavid Persia and the Mughal Empire, famous poets moved to literary centers. Khushal Khan Khattak, a 17th Century Pashtun poet and warrior, lived in the Hindu Kush foothills. He used verse to express the tribal code. By the late 19th century Pashto sung poetry had been formalized at the royal court into the classical genre known as ghazal, in recognition of the fact that music can be a powerful way to deliver great poetry.
Whenever I have said a word
To any single friend
Immediately the secret’s spread
Till all the world has known.
When the black partridge lifts its voice
From the lush meadow land
He is soon stripped of his regal plumes
By falcon or by hawk.
I’ve many quite devoted friends
The prize of passing years
But to their thousands there’s not one
To call a confident.
- Khushal Khan Khattak
While Afghan literature can be split into Persian, Turkic, and Pashto, there is a shared tradition and heritage that unites the consciousness of all Afghans and is reflected in the literature. For example, a tradition of military prowess and invincibility presents itself in the literature, whether it is a product of Khyber Pass Pashtuns, Uzbek Central Asians, or Tajik mountain ghazis.
In the 20th century, Kabul became the center of publication. Mahmud Tarzi (1865-1933), a reformer and editor of Kabul’s first literary publication, Seraj ul-Akhbar, was instrumental in developing a modern literary community. Afghanistan has produced several literary figures including Khalillulah Khalili (1907-1987) and Sayed Buhaniddin Majruh. A neo-classicist poet, prose writer, poet laureate, and ambassador, Khalili defined the Afghan Renaissance man.
A Night in Kohistan
On the mountain’s slope
The assembled trees form a dark green mass
The stars twinkle
And the moonlight adorns the Valley
It is a night of youth and love.
From the grassy meads, covered with wild flowers.
Where the nightingales sing
I hear the heavenly melody if the shepard’s flute.
- Khalili
SOURCE: http://www.embassyofafghanistan.org/brief.html
PROVERBS
*************************************
From the first English translation of Pashto proverbs, gathered by the British colonial administrator, Septimus Thorburn in the late 1800’s. Thornburn was the first of many to be impressed by their “subtle knowledge of the finer workings of the human heart" and immense cross-cultural value.
* Be beautiful yourself, and you will find the world full of beauty.
* Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you're a vegetarian.
* Don't dance without the drum. — That is, without a cause.
* What tree is there that the wind has not shaken?
* Although the cloud is black, white water falls from it. — This is more 'forcible than our "Every cloud has a silver lining."
* Be it but an onion, let it be (given) graciously. — That is, show courtesy in small matters as well as great.
* Money doesn't change people, it mainly exposes them.
* People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.
USAID PROJECTS
*********************************
So, you've all been asking me.... what the heck are you doing in Afghanistan?
Here's an overview a few innovative approaches to working sustainably and in a culturally appropriate way in what is often a very complex and challenging country.
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Afghan Women Improve Animal Health
Female para-veterinarians are increasing livestock productivity while supporting their families.
Hirat Province, Afghanistan | Sunday, January 03, 2010
When paraveterinarian Momena Mohammadi drives to villages to treat farmers’ livestock, other Afghan women ask her how they too can become a paravet. Women are not the only ones eager to follow in her footsteps; Mohammadi’s husband and eldest son also want to earn a living through veterinary services.
“Most of the people in Afghanistan are involved in agriculture and livestock, so this has an important role in Afghanistan’s economy and in improving the livelihoods of families,” said 30-year-old Mohammadi. “Strengthening this sector will help all the people and the general economy of Afghanistan.”
With the assistance of USAID, Mohammadi graduated from a paravet course and began running a veterinary field unit (VFU) more than two years ago in Hirat province. Mohammadi has clients in approximately 15 villages and offers services like vaccination, pregnancy tests, de-worming, and castration. Often she will drive her car alone to see clients and treat livestock, but occasionally her husband will accompany her to more remote villages.
Her husband is supportive of the career, and Mohammadi is the sole breadwinner for her family, which includes three sons ranging in age from five to 16. Mohammadi estimates that her gross sales are 20,000 afghanis, or $400, each month.
Mohammadi attended a paravet program for six months to learn about diseases, nutrition, anatomy, and other subjects that enable her to improve livestock health. She also received training in business management to help her manage her VFU. Mohammadi graduated first in a class of 20 men and women. USAID provided equipment, ranging from a refrigerator for medicine storage to surgical instruments, to help her establish her VFU.
Mohammadi is one of several female paravets assisted by USAID. With such support, Mohammadi said women are becoming a growing force in Afghan society. “If you compare the situation with some years ago, it’s much different now,” said Mohammadi. “Women are active in many aspects in life in Afghanistan. They are going to school and operating businesses. Things are changing.”
Panjsher Women Profit from Food Processing
Panjsher women learn to process and market juices and jams made from their region’s bountiful harvest.
Panjsher Province, Afghanistan | Thursday, December 10, 2009
Panjsher Valley’s fruit and vegetable bounty is beginning to nourish people throughout Afghanistan – and may someday make its way to grocery stores around the world. The region’s harvest is gaining value, and economic opportunities are increasing, thanks to a USAID program that teaches women how to process local produce into jams and juices.
A large percentage of Panjsher’s produce is too often lost to spoilage due to insufficient distribution networks. Preserving the fruits and vegetables in the form of nutritious, all-natural juices and jams adds value and saves the region’s harvest – while providing jobs for local women.
USAID and the Welfare and Development Organization for Afghanistan are teaching Panjsher’s women how to select produce from the bazaar, process it, and market the jams and juices they make. For many, this is their first opportunity to earn an income. Lialima, one of the participants, said, “My family is supportive of what I’m learning to do. Before this, I was just a housewife and now I can provide some of our income.”
In time, all seven districts in Panjsher will have a processing center that employs 20 skilled women workers – including widows who have few opportunities to support their families. All of the women take courses in Dari and math, which allows them to read recipes and perform simple bookkeeping.
The Panjsher juices and jams are already in great demand. At an open house held recently in Bazarak, dozens of visitors bought multiple bottles of jam and juice, and the products are currently being sold in local markets.
At the USAID-supported 2009 Kabul International Fresh Fruit and Vegetable AgFair, the jams and juices sold very well to a discerning Afghan and international clientele. The small quantity of product samples were quickly purchased by AgFair attendees. More importantly, three wholesalers in Kabul placed orders for future products. The women of Panjsher now have an excellent opportunity to promote the high quality products of their home region while earning an income to support their families.
This food processing program began through a coordinated effort between USAID and the Panjsher PRT, showing how civil-military cooperation can improve the lives and incomes of Afghans.
Spinning Wheels Help Women Triple Productivity
Foot-powered spinning wheels raise the output of an Afghan company, enabling the owner to provide more jobs.
Kabul, Afghanistan | Thursday, December 10, 2009
Mohammad Nabi, the owner of Sadaqat Wool Spinning Co., has almost tripled the number of women he employs to spin wool yarn in the past year. His company’s rapid expansion stems from the introduction of foot-treadle spinning wheels – simple devices that date back seven centuries and are still proving their value today.
Nabi established his company in Kabul two years ago, employing 50 Afghan women who relied on the traditional method of spinning wool by hand. In the hope of easing the women’s workload while increasing their output, Nabi bought electric spinning wheels with motors. Since municipal power was available for only a few hours every day, he ran a diesel generator that required a continuous supply of expensive fuel to power the machines.
To expand Sadaqat’s production capacity while reducing the company’s rising energy costs, USAID provided 120 foot-treadle spinning wheels as well as chairs and temporary shelter. The wooden foot-treadle spinning wheel is powered by the spinner’s foot rather than a motor or the spinner’s hand. The spinner sits and pumps a foot pedal that turns the wheel, leaving both hands free to handle the wool yarn. USAID also provided Sadaqat with training in the use and maintenance of this simple, yet effective, device.
Using the foot-treadle spinning wheels, the women have improved the quality of the wool yarn and more than tripled their production – from 1,200 kg to 4,200 kg each month. “The foot-powered spinning wheel is easier and faster,” said Bibi Sabar, an Afghan woman who has worked at Sadaqat for the past year and a half. “I don’t get tired. I think it’s like driving a car.”
In turn, Sadaqat’s sales have jumped from $1,200 per month to $8,200 per month, allowing the company to increase the number of women employed from 50 to 120. Sadaqat sells its high-quality wool yarn to carpet producers in Kabul and Mazari Sharif, but Nabi is eyeing other markets as well. He hopes to export the wool to India and neighboring countries one day.
“There is a huge difference with the new spinning wheels,” said Nabi. “We are very grateful. Without this support from the United States, we would have been struggling.”
Afghan Cashmere Reaches International Markets
High-quality cashmere satisfies UK market and provides income for Afghan farmers.
Hirat, Afghanistan | Saturday, October 24, 2009
Despite a slumping demand for luxury goods in the world due to the economic crisis, international markets are waking up to opportunities in Afghanistan’s nascent cashmere industry. Until recently, the value of cashmere was not recognized in the country, and much of its potential was lost when herders sheared their goats for wool. That all changed when USAID launched a nationwide campaign to increase awareness and educate male and female goat herders on how to harvest the product.
In tandem with efforts to teach herders to collect cashmere by combing their goats to harvest the fine hair, USAID began supporting regional cashmere collection warehouses to serve goat herders while lining up international buyers.
In May 2009, Sodis Masood Co. Ltd, an Afghan cashmere trading company based in Hirat that buys quality cashmere from regional goat herders, sold 20 metric tons of the product to Cashmere Fibers International Ltd. in the United Kingdom. At $6.50 per kg, the deal was worth $130,000.
“At the beginning of the year, we were worried that the global economic recession might also affect the Afghan cashmere industry, but such deals show that there is a strong demand for Afghan cashmere,” said Haji Ghulam Mohammad Habibzada, owner of Sodis Masood Co. Ltd.
Cashmere Fibers will work with Hirat-based Macao Company to scour and disinfect the cashmere. Previously, Afghanistan lacked the technology needed to scour and disinfect cashmere, forcing international buyers to send the product to other countries in the region. Processing the product in-country is an encouraging step in promoting the cashmere industry to locals and foreigners alike.
“This is a very good deal, and I think it is the beginning of a good start for the Afghan cashmere industry. Such deals will definitely encourage farmers and traders to promote this valuable commodity,” Habibzada said. “I would like to thank everybody who helped promote and revive the Afghan cashmere industry.”
Afghanistan Exports First Apples to India
USAID helped open India’s booming market to Afghan apple farmers.
Wardak Province, Afghanistan | Thursday, November 12, 2009
In early November 2009, Afghan farmers made history with the first-ever export of their apples to India. The country’s farmers now have the opportunity to introduce their apples – some of the crunchiest, sweetest, and largest in the region – to the biggest market in South and Central Asia. USAID worked with a local trader to facilitate a trial shipment of three metric tons of apples to India. The apples are now shipped on Air India through special rates that USAID negotiated with the airline. Up to 75 metric tons of apples will be exported each week from apple-growing regions like Wardak and Paktya provinces until the end of December.
India requires a pest risk analysis for apple imports to prevent infestations by dangerous pests. In partnership with Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, USAID completed the analysis, which details methods to prevent infestations, and submitted the document to India’s Ministry of Agriculture. India can require up to a year to process the document, but USAID expedited approval through visits with officials in New Delhi.
“I’m really happy about this,” said Gul Amin Khan, an apple farmer from Wardak. “We can now sell our apples, which are famous for their sweetness, at a good price to India.”
The opening of the Indian market comes just as Afghan farmers, like Khan, harvest their apples. USAID, in partnership with Coalition Forces, provided the farmers with training to improve the quality and quantity of the apples and to introduce proper sorting, grading, and packaging procedures. As a result of the partnership, farmers are also using cold storage facilities that allow them to wait for optimal prices before selling the fruit.
A drought has reduced India’s apple harvest, and Afghanistan will fill a surging demand. Afghan farmers will likely receive far higher prices in India as compared to Pakistan and the local market. “I’m expecting to sell our apples at a good price in India,” said Abdul Masood, a farmer who received training from USAID. “That, in turn, will encourage us to grow more apples, export them to India, and get more money, which can contribute to the local economy.”
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