Story highlights Subject of famous photograph pleads guilty to immigration charges

Sharbat Gula faces a short jail sentence and has paid a fine

Peshawar, Pakistan (CNN) The woman known as the "Afghan Girl" for her appearance on a 1984 National Geographic cover has pleaded guilty to charges of illegally staying in Pakistan -- and told CNN that she simply wants to return to her homeland.

"I want to go back to Afghanistan, to my hometown," Sharbat Gula said, speaking exclusively to CNN at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, where she was receiving treatment for a medical condition.

"I (am) feeling better and (my) children are in the care of the Afghan consulate, and they will come visit me soon. I don't want to go anywhere but Afghanistan," she said, adding that she has not been back to Afghanistan for 13 years.

Gula, whose striking green eyes in a National Geographic cover photo made her face known around the world, was 12 when photographer Steve McCurry captured his iconic image of her living in a refugee camp for Afghan nationals in Peshawar.

Now in her 40s, she was arrested there last week for falsifying documents and illegally staying in Pakistan.

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