Thursday, February 26, 2015

Mona Lisa of Pakistan


Mona Lisa of Afghan war has applied to become Mona Lisa of Pakistan as she came to the NADRA office to acquire a national identity card for herself and her two sons. Surprisingly, the sleepy NADRA official recognized her and then the whole media jumped at the news.

In 1985, when the Afghan war was in full swing and reporters from all over the world were hunting for stories in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its surrounding areas, one NAT GEO reporter saw Sharbat Gulla and got mesmerized by her haunting eyes and natural beauty.

The cover of NATO GEO published Sharbat Gulla photo and it was a global hit instantly. Sharbat was only a kid then and the famous photo of the 12-year-old Sharbat has always been compared with Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the difference is that this one is alive and real.

Sharbat Gulla disappeared all of a sudden as she turned a young girl. This wasn’t unexpected because its part of the Pashtoon culture that the young girls and women don’t go out and if they do, they remain veiled heavily and only go out with family members.

Then after some 17 years, another NAT GEO reporter found out Sharbat bibi who was married then with two boys and was living in Peshawar. Her eyes were the same, though her face had lost the beauty due to the hardships of immigrant life in Pakistan as Afghan refugee.

Now she has surfaced again as she applies to become a Pakistani and her eyes are all the same.

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