Afghan woman from iconic National Geographic cover arrested

Photographer Steve McCurry stands in front of his portraits of Shabbat Gula.
(Image credit: Ulrich Perrey/DPA/Getty Images)

Sharbat Gula grabbed the world's attention in 1985, when a haunting portrait of the young Afghan girl appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine. Today, she's facing a fine and up to 14 years in jail after officials in Pakistan say she was arrested for carrying false identity papers.

Gula allegedly applied for an identity card in April 2014, using the name Sharbat Bibi, the BBC reports. The UN says there are 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan, and it's believed there are 1 million more who are not registered. Pakistani officials claim that thousands of Afghan refugees are in the country using false names in order to stay out of the computerized system, and they have discovered 60,675 fraudulent ID cards on non-nationals. Gula was arrested in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.