My reflection of the Afghan Girl

The Afghan Girl



"We've known her face, but we've not known her story, not even her name." This story started when Steve McCurry, a photographer took a picture to an Afghan girl in the refugee camp in Pakistan. Later, she appeared in National Geographic magazine in 1985. Her unforgettable green eyes could tell and express everything. Her looked summed the horror and the suffering she was living because of war. Her face represented Afghanistan's pain.
The mysterious Afghan girl captivated not only National Geographic readers but also anyone who saw her image around the world. People were inspired and motivated with that image. They decided to help people from war. All this made her to be one of the world's most famous faces and she didn´t knew it. She symbolized the suffering of an entire generation of Afghan people living the worst times in life; war.
If we compare México from Afghanistan we could find lots of differences and similarities. I think that Mexicans would have reacted the same like Afghan people. Why? For example, if a photographer comes and asks if someone knows this “Mexican girl”, most of the population would answer: “Oh is my mother, is my friend, I am this girl etc.” The same like Afghan people did. Mexicans would have answered that the girl already died or that she went to another place like most of Afghan’s did. Also Mexicans would have given them information to try to help them find the girl.
Culture is totally different in all countries, specially between México and Afghanistan. México has more freedom than Afghanistan and in México is allowed to do more things than in Afghanistan. It would have been easier for the photographer to find a “Mexican girl” because in our society it is allowed that men meet woman at their homes. No matters if the husband is not at home. They don’t need any permission from their husband or family as in Afghanistan. What really matters here is that the woman wants to meet strange people. It’s her decision if she receives and allows someone entered her house. We only need to respect her decision. Also because in Afghanistan all women have to cover their face with a veil; it’s part of their culture. And in México we can dress like we want. The use of veils in Afghan´s woman complicated the search because it was more difficult to recognize the girl. Mexicans girls are free to wear all kinds of clothes. They can wear, skirts, short dresses, pants etc. On the other hand in Afghanistan, woman
by rule must wear dresses or long dressing-gowns that cover the whole body.
One thing I can conclude, war is not acceptable in México and in Afghanistan. Nobody would like to live in a world full of sadness, depression, deaths, destruction and loneliness. Every war is a destruction of the human spirit that’s why people read sadness and desperation in the Afghan girl face. War is the end of dreams and hopes. Hopefully, humans have the capacity to recover from misfortunes just like the Afghan girl did.

PD: no war!!!!