-Introduction
-Pre-Soviet History
-Pashtun People
-Soviet Invasion
-The Afghan Girl
-End of Occupation
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Photographer Steve McCurry, was traveling along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan documenting the flow of refugees from Afghanistan in June, 1985. He stopped by a school in a refugee camp to photograph the children and took a photo that would later be used around the world to represent the hardships of the people in Afghanistan. McCurry, learned of the girl's journey to the refugee camp, and that her parents had been killed in the Soviet air campaign.

The photograph became famous after it was published on the cover of National Geographic in 1985, and the most common question the magazine and photographer received became, "who is she." The truth of the matter however, is that the custom of the Afghan people does not permit a woman from disclosing her name to someone she does not know, in this case the photographer. The photograph and the girl who appeared in it became known only as 'the Afghan Girl.'

As the costs of occupying Afghanistan mounted, the Soviets began to withdraw, and in the time that followed many refugees moved around or returned to their homes.