National Geographic's ‘Afghan girl’ denies getting fake Pakistan citizenship card

Sharbat Gula gained worldwide fame in 1984 after her photo, with piercing green eyes, was published on the cover of “National Geographic” magazine

Bookseller Inam Khan shows a copy of the National Geographic magazine with the photograph of Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula, from his rare collection in Islamabad on Wednesday.

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

Ms. Gula 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 .

Mr. 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.