The Arrest of National Geographic's 'Afghan Girl' and Hypocrisy of the Western Media

Tazeen Hasan highlights the hypocrisy of the western media. Instead of highlighting Pakistani hospitality on carrying the burden of more than three million refugees for about four decades, western media portrays Pakistanis as a terrorist nation.

In a world, shaking refugee crisis due to wars imposed by the western superpowers, Pakistan is carrying a burden of more than three million Afghan refugees since 1979. This makes the Pakistanis the most welcoming country for refugees not only in the world but in history. However, Pakistan itself is suffering a lot due to terrorism. Yet, instead of appreciating the hospitality, the international media always portrays us as a terrorist nation. 

It is believed that out of these 2.5 million refugees still present in Pakistan, Nadra has detected 60,675 Pakistani ID cards that were fraudulently obtained by Afghan nationals.  One of the fraudulent ID cards has been acquired by Sharbat Gulla, the National Geographic's Green-eyed Afghan girl, photographed by Steve McCurry in 1984 in an Afghan Refugee Camp in Peshawar.

According to a Guardian report, she has been arrested by FIA on Wednesday after a lengthy investigation for living in Pakistan under false documents as a Pakistani national. Earlier, Pakistani media had published a photo from Sharbat Gula’s computerized national identity card (CNIC), an illegal document for which she was not entitled as a foreign national.

Interestingly,  when I came across the Guardian news story about her arrest, I was shocked to notice that the narrative was portraying her as a victim of the Pakistani government's brutal attitude towards Afghan immigrants. Instead of condemning the lady for a criminal offense in a country that has given her refuge for at least 32 years (as she was first photographed in 1984 by a National Geographic photographer) Guardian is sympathizing with the Afghanis whose mobile numbers and bank accounts have been shut up because of the forged documents. According to the report, Pakistani police is using the crackdown to harass Afghanis.

This illustrates the hypocrisy of western media.  Whole generations of Afghani have been born in Pakistan as refugees but no one appreciates our role. Pakistan is always blamed for all the bad things happening in Afghanistan but nobody in western media or even in Afghanistan appreciates the Pakistani incredibly historic hospitality.