# Stalin had yellow eyes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2001, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838 "2001-09-20T18:02:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/21 "2001-09-23T03:05:39Z")
My apologies Duck…I really should read things a bit closer. Sometimes I rush myself…a bad habit I know. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/22 "2001-09-23T03:35:00Z")
My boyfriend’s pupils are blue around the outside and yellow on the inside. It can happen. ---
**Author:** ![cw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71c47a/32.png) [@cw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cw)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/23 "2001-09-23T03:44:08Z")
Yellow eyes are often a trait of jaundice, he was probably hitting the vodka bottle a little too much. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/24 "2001-09-23T04:04:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bibliophage \* > \*\*Don’t I remember a _National Geographic_ cover photo of a woman with amber irises? This would have been in the late 80s or early 90s, I think. There was something very odd about her eyes, but I can’t remember for sure if they were amber. \*\* **bibliophage,** if it’s the picture I’m thinking of, wasn’t it a picture of a brown-skinned Berber girl from North Africa, with ice-blue eyes that you’d expect to see in a person of Scandanavian descent? She was staring straight at the camera, and the contrast was striking. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/25 "2001-09-23T04:28:45Z")
I used to work with a girl who had yellow eyes-the irises, not the whites. She had golden blond hair and her eyes matched her hair, so I always thought of her as having blond eyes. I vividly remember the National Geographic cover you guys are talking about. I am almost certain the girl on the cover was from Afghanistan. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately for obvious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/26 "2001-09-23T04:33:01Z")
**bibliophage** , **Northern Piper** , and **carlotta** : If [this](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/071483839X.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) is the picture all of you are thinking of, the girl is indeed from Afghanistan. It was on the June 1985 cover of _National Geographic_. I’ve seen the photographer who took the picture quoted as saying he has no idea what happened to her. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/27 "2001-09-23T11:41:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by even sven \* > \*\*My boyfriend’s pupils are blue around the outside and yellow on the inside. It can happen. \*\* That’s even more surprising. One learns something new each day… ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/28 "2001-09-23T11:43:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Northern Piper \* > ] if it’s the picture I’m thinking of, wasn’t it a picture of a brown-skinned Berber girl from North Africa, with ice-blue eyes that you’d expect to see in a person of Scandanavian descent? \*\* Blue and green eyes are quite common amongst Berbers… ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/29 "2001-09-23T11:45:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > \*\ ***bibliophage** , **Northern Piper** , and **carlotta** : If [this](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/071483839X.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) is the picture all of you are thinking of, the girl is indeed from Afghanistan. \*\* If all Afghani women look like that, I understand why their husbands want them to wear a Burkha… ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/30 "2001-09-23T17:20:22Z")
1. Not all Afghani men want their wives to cover their faces. That’s a Fundamentalist Muslim thing. Not all Afghan Muslims are Fundamentalists. [http://www.smh.com.au/news/0102/22/features/features1.html](http://www.smh.com.au/news/0102/22/features/features1.html) > [@](#): > > It is predominantly in the Middle East where the hijab and burkha, which completely cover the body including, in some cases, the face, have gained the status of symbols of female oppression for many Western women. The hijab is just the head scarf; the burkha is the whole head-to-toe covering. 1. I don’t think she’s that bad-looking. ---
**Author:** ![SqrlCub](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SqrlCub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SqrlCub)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/31 "2001-09-23T17:37:24Z")
I dated a man with yellow eyes (the colored part of the eye, not the whites). He called them hazel but they were distinctly canary yellow (no contacts) with some flecks of gold. It was pretty strange. HUGS! Sqrl ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/32 "2001-09-23T18:05:28Z")
DDG, I think that clairobscur is suggesting that if his (her?) wife was that hot, he/she would want to keep her under wraps. That if definitly one of the most memorable Nat Geo coevers ever: I knew exactly which one bibliophage was talking about the second I read his description. I can’t think of another cover that stands out like that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/33 "2001-09-23T19:39:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > \*\ ***bibliophage** , **Northern Piper** , and **carlotta** : If [this](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/071483839X.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) is the picture all of you are thinking of, the girl is indeed from Afghanistan. It was on the June 1985 cover of _National Geographic_. I’ve seen the photographer who took the picture quoted as saying he has no idea what happened to her. \*\* I would have sworn the accompanying article said the picture was of a boy. Anybody else read it? ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/34 "2001-09-24T01:07:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > > 1. I don’t think she’s that bad-looking. \*\* Actually, I meant she was beautiful looking, and I hinted that jealousy would make their whusbands want them to wear the burkha… ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/35 "2001-09-24T05:46:18Z")
> [@](#): > > I would have sworn the accompanying article said the picture was of a boy. Anybody else read it? From the contents page of the June 1985 issue of _National Geographic_: > [@](#): > > COVER: Haunting eyes and a tattered garment tell the plight of a girl who fled her native Afghanistan for a refugee camp in Pakistan. Photograph by Steve McCurry. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/36 "2001-09-24T06:18:19Z")
If Stalin’s eyes were yellow because of jaundice, it may not have been the vodka that was causing it. There’s what’s known as gil-barrs syndrome (not sure if the spelling’s right) in which one’s body produces too much biliruben (again, forgive the spelling errors, its late and I’ve had a lot of whiskey this evening), thus causing a jaundice-like condition. I’ve got it, but it only manifests itself when I get really stressed out. Now, that I think about it, I thought that I read some place where Stalin had blue eyes. Hmmm. Have to see if I can find that book. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/37 "2001-09-24T06:30:49Z")
I knew a guy with yellowish eyes with vertical-slit pupils. He also had a third nipple. It’s funny, I went to school with him when I was 12, and then 16 years later he moved into the apartment complex my mother managed. She remembered me telling her about him and asked him if he lived in Rockwall in the mid-80s, and it was him. ---
**Author:** ![Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/53a042/32.png) [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838/38 "2001-09-24T13:11:22Z")
That photo is considered one of the greatest ever by Nat’l Geographic, and those eyes certainly sends chills up my spine. I think Cecil might have been asked whatever happened to this girl, and really no one knows. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stalin-had-yellow-eyes/82838.md?page=1)