The Framing of Afghan Refugees in Global News Media

Afghanistan and Afghans have been prominent topics of discussion in news media for decades (Fahmy, 2004, 2010). In the last six decades, Afghans have been immigrating across the world due to political changes in Afghanistan and citizens’ subsequent fear of persecution. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Afghans constitute the fourth-largest refugee group in the world (2.8 million) after Syrians (6.8 million), Venezuelans (5.6 million), and Ukrainians (5.4 million) (Refugee Statistics, 2022). Over the course of these decades, Afghan refugees have been the focus of Western media attention in many ways (Dastgeer & Gade, 2016; Fahmy, 2004; Eltantawy, 2007). One of the iconic refugee images, which became known as the Afghan Girl or the Mona Lisa of Afghanistan, was an image of a 12-year-old Afghan refugee taken in a Pakistani camps during the 1980s. The photographer from National Geographic magazine still considers that photograph to be the best work in his career.