Fame and infamy

Far better time, effort is spent tracking those who mean harm to Pakistan and let Sharbat Bibi go back to her life

Sharbat Bibi was 12 years old when her photograph appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985. It was taken by Steve McCurry and became one of the most iconic images of the latter half of the 20^th century. The picture was taken in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp where Sharbat Bibi lived at the time. Her fame in the wider world was not mirrored in the life she led after publication of her haunting image. She remained an anonymous refugee until she was ‘rediscovered’ by National Geographic in 2002 and a short documentary was made about her life — since when she has again disappeared from the view of the wider world. Today her story and her picture are again in the headlines and for all the wrong reasons.

She appears to have remained in Peshawar and like many refugees has applied for and received an illegally-issued Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) from NADRA. The head of the Hayatabad NADRA office has now been suspended along with other officials; and the CNIC of Sharbat Bibi and the two men who are claimed to be her sons but bear no physical resemblance to her and appear to be men in their thirties or even forties — have been cancelled. The case would have been unremarkable were it not for the famous image. Thousands of Afghans use false documents to obtain a Pakistan identity card every year, and a minority of those flying under a false flag go on to commit acts of terrorism both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. No officials are suspended because they allowed dangerous people to slip through the net of validation, yet it happens on an almost daily basis. Suspending officers — who may or may not have had any direct involvement with the issuing of the CNICs — for supposed derelictions of duty in regard to a single woman and her alleged sons seems like overkill. Far better that time and effort is spent tracking those who mean harm to Pakistan and let Sharbat Bibi go back to her anonymous life.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th,  2015.

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