Shah Marai didn’t get to see Tarana Akbari’s smile the first time he met the Afghan girl.

Mr. Marai, the chief photographer in Afghanistan for Agence France-Presse, accompanied a reporter to Tarana’s house in Old Kabul on Tuesday morning, about four months after she became known as the young girl at the center of Massoud Hossaini’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph.

The first time, in December, Tarana was hospitalized, speechless, in a state of shock.

Now, Tarana, 11, no longer wears the green dress that became something of a symbol of that December day last year, when a suicide bomber killed more than 70 civilians at a religious festival in Kabul. Mr. Hossaini, 30, had been photographing young Afghan Shiites during a procession for Ashura, which honors the death of Shiite Islam’s holiest martyr. He captured Tarana, screaming and covered with blood amid a pile of bodies.

Mr. Marai, who is 36 and originally from Kabul, had been off that day. But when he heard about the explosion, he rushed to the office and found Mr. Hossaini, who had been wounded. When he saw the pictures, he was shocked. They went on the wire alongside images by other photographers.

But Mr. Marai knew at once that Mr. Hossaini’s picture was special.

“I told Massoud, ‘This picture, this is a strong picture. And you can see a lot of pain in that picture,’ ” he said over the phone from Kabul on Tuesday. He said he had predicted the image would win awards.

Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

This year, the image was awarded first prize in spot news in the Pictures of the Year International contest and second prize for spot news from World Press Photo. The Pulitzer was announced on Monday. (Mr. Hossaini, who has met Tarana himself since the blast, was in transit Tuesday and unavailable for comment.)

On Dec. 7, the day after the blast occurred, Lens spoke with him about his experience at the horrific scene. He said he could not stop crying. He couldn’t remember ever having cried like that before.

Tarana, Lawrence Bartlett reported for Agence France-Presse, still cries when she recalls that haunting day — “but she managed an occasional shy smile in an interview with A.F.P. at her modest home on Tuesday, as she cuddled her sisters, who were both wounded in the blast.”

Mr. Marai and Mr. Bartlett found her watching television with her two sisters and brother. Their mother was in the hospital, but their father, Ahmad, who is 35 and unemployed, was there for the interview.

“Do you remember me?” Mr. Marai asked Tarana.

Compared to their first visit, in the hospital in December, she had more to say. She was even laughing, Mr. Marai said. “I said, ‘O.K. Right now, you’ve changed a lot.’ ”

Tarana, who has walked with a limp since the blast, told the agency she hoped to return to school soon. She wants to be a teacher when she grows up.

The family knew about Mr. Hossaini’s World Press Photo award. But they had not heard about the Pulitzer. The news has been on local television in Kabul, so they watched closely, in case the image appeared Tuesday morning.

Shah Marai/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The news made them hopeful, Mr. Marai said. So far, the family has not received any aid from international organizations. Tarana’s sister’s stomach is covered in scars. And on the day of the blast, seven members of their extended family died, including a young cousin.

Mr. Marai said both Tarana and her father have said she needs treatment for the injuries that resulted from the blast.

“She said, ‘We hope to get something, because right now everybody knows about my life, about my condition,'” he said.

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