Saturday, March 16, 2002

A face of Afghanistan
Old news, I know, but miracles know no season. They found her, the woman who was the girl on the cover of National Geographic magazine in June 1985.

She doesn't know how old she is, let alone old she was when the original photo was taken. Thirteen, perhaps. Her parents had been dead for half her life already, when her startling, breathtaking, intense face was captured in a fleeting moment by Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. Then she disappeared. She didn't trust Americans, had no reason to. She didn't know she was being looked for, and once she learned of it she had no desire to be found. Foreigners who search for you seldom mean you well.

Youth is not innocence in Afghanistan.

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