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Gula was orphaned during the Soviet Union's bombing of Afghanistan. While at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan in 1984, her picture was taken by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry . Gula was one of the students in an informal school within the refugee camp; McCurry, rarely given the opportunity to photograph Afghan women, seized the opportunity and captured her image.
Although her name was not known, her picture, titled "Afghan Girl," appeared on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic magazine. The image of her face, with a red scarf draped loosely over her head and with her piercing green eyes staring directly into the camera, became a symbol both of the 1980s Afghan conflict and of the refugee situation worldwide. The image itself was named as "the most recognized photograph" in the history of the magazine.
The identity of the "Afghan Girl" remained unknown for over 15 years; Afghanistan remained largely closed to Western media until after the overthrow of the Taliban government in 2001. Although McCurry made several attempts during the 1990s to locate her, he was unsuccessful.
In January of 2002, a National Geographic team travelled to Afghanistan to locate the subject of the now-famous photograph. McCurry, upon learning that the Nasir Bagh refugee camp was soon to close, inquired of its remaining residents, one of whom knew Gula's brother and was able to send word to her hometown.
The team finally located Gula, then age 30, in a remote region of Afghanistan; she had returned to her native country from the refugee camp in 1992. Her identity was confirmed using biometric technology which matched irisiris is the grey-brown area. The other structures visible are the transparent pupil (showing as black), the white outer sclera, of which the central part, the cornea, is transparent. In anatomy, the iris (correct classical plural, irides is the most visib patterns to those of the photograph with virtual certainty. She vividly recalled being photographed -- she had never had her picture taken before or since. In the late 1980s, Gula married; she had had four children, all girls, one of whom died as an infant. Gula was entirely unaware of the impact which her photo had made on Western audiences.
Her story was featured in the April 2002 issue of National Geographic and was the subject of a television documentary which aired in March 2002. In recognition of her, National Geographic set up a charitable fund with the goal of benefitting Afghan women.