PESHAWAR, Pakistan — She has been called the Mona Lisa of Afghanistan, the emerald-eyed refugee girl who appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985 in one of the most famous news photographs ever taken.

On Wednesday, Sharbat Gula was jailed in Pakistan on charges of falsifying her identity papers.

Gula appeared before a judge in the northwestern city of Peshawar after authorities arrested her on suspicion of possessing a forged national identity card. The judge ordered her held at Peshawar’s central prison pending trial.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in Pakistan hold the computerized national identity cards, but Pakistan has launched investigations into suspected fraudulent documents as part of a drive to expel Afghans from the country.

The Federal Investigation Agency said it was looking into allegedly fraudulent identity cards issued to Gula and two men identified on registration forms as her sons.

“The lady had obtained a Pakistani citizenship card in 2014 and also possessed an Afghan refugee identification card as well as an Afghan passport on which she had traveled to perform the hajj,” the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, said Shahid Ilyas, assistant director of the agency.

If convicted, Gula faces up to 14 years in prison and a fine of $1,000.

Gula has four children, including a 5-year-old son, whom authorities described as “grief-stricken” after their mother’s arrest. Her husband, an Afghan baker, died about five years ago.

Gula shot to fame when National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry captured her penetrating gaze, framed by a red shawl, when she was 12.


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