Italy’s Mario Draghi grants Sharbat Gula refugee status

Mario Draghi

Mario Draghi was born in Rome, Italy to Carlo Draghi and Gilda Mancini. Carlo was born in Padua, Veneto, Italy while Mancini was born in Monteverde, Campania, Italy.

In 1962, Carlo passed away. In 1966, Mancini died.

Mario has two younger siblings. His sister Andreina Draghi is an art historian while their brother Marcello Draghi is an entrepreneur.

In 1970, Mario graduated from the Sapienza University of Rome in Rome with a bachelor’s degree in economics. In 1977, he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States with a PhD in economics.

In 1983, Mario was appointed a counsellor to Giovanni Goria, who was then the minister of treasury of Italy. From November 1, 2011 to October 31, 2019, Mario was the president of the European Central Bank, which is based in Frankfurt, Germany.

On February 13, 2021, Mario became the prime minister of Italy. On September 3, 2021, he turned 73.

On November 25, 2021, it was confirmed that Draghi has granted Sharbat Gula her refugee status. She has arrived in Rome.

Sharbat Gula

Born in Nangarhar, Afghanistan to a Pashtun family, Gula has three sisters and a brother named Kashar Khan. She and husband Rahmat Gul have one son, three daughters namely Robin Gula, Zahid Gula and Alyan Gula and another daughter who died shortly after birth.

Sharbat is the woman in the National Geographic photo titled “Afghan Girl.” It was taken in 1984 by photojournalist Steve McCurry, then 34, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

At the time, Sharbat was attending an informal school at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan amid the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Without her knowledge, her photo taken by McCurry in 1984 appeared on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic.

McCurry did not know Sharbat’s name until they were reunited in January 2002. In April 2002, she graced the cover of National Geographic again.

On October 26, 2016, Sharbat was arrested in Pakistan by the country’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for holding fake identity papers. After spending 15 days in prison and eight days in the hospital, she was deported to Afghanistan where the government promised to take care of her family housing, education and health.

In January 2017, Sharbat told BBC that the “Afghan Girl” photo created more problems than benefits but she was proud that the income from the photo helped many widows and orphans. In November 2017, she received a 3,000-square-foot house and a $700 per month stipend for living and medical costs from the Afghan government, according to National Geographic.