For 20 years, Uzbek women, along with men, have been struggling against the authoritarian dictatorship of Islam Karimov, long-serving president of Uzbekistan.

These women are politicians, journalists, human rights activists, and ordinary women, who care about their nation.

As a result of their active citizenship, many of them were thrown into prisons, colonies and basements of detention facilities, and interrogated under torture, abused and humiliated by the regime. However, due to corruption system in Uzbekistan, these perpetrators are not punished.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva, head of the International Human Rights Organization “Fiery Hearts Club”, is one of such Uzbek women, who dared to speak out against the atrocities of the Karimov regime. On March 6, 2006, because of their professional activities, rights activist Tajibayeva was sentenced to eight years in prison and was sent to women’s penal colony. The trial was held with severe violations of procedures.

During the interview to “Jarayon”, Mutabar Tadjibayeva told about those miserable 970 days she spent behind the bars, being constantly tortured and abused in the prison dungeons.

Jarayon: Ms. Tadjibaeva, independent media very often writes about torture in prisons in Uzbekistan. These stories describe horrible acts of torture that one sometimes may think “May be there is an exaggeration of facts?” You are the person who personally witnessed and suffered torture in Uzbekistan, and who constantly monitors the press. What can you say about it?

Tadjibayeva: The press can write a lot about torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, but they still cannot afford to cover the full extent of torture existing in the country. These stories about torture in prisons and during the investigation can be called as “a drop in the sea.” For not every person, who suffered torture, can talk about it, and claim their rights.

The reason for this is fear. Victims think: “It is not possible to prove their crime, if I fight against them, I will harm not only myself, but, perhaps, also my loved ones.” So far not a single torture victim has achieved justice against the perpetrators. Unfortunately, this is not possible, as the country is bogged down in the “swamp of corruption.” Torturers will stop at nothing to silence the victims of torture. They know that there is no mechanism to punish them for the crime they commit.

There is another argument proving that there is systematic torture in Uzbekistan. I believe that we must focus our attention on this.

If you pay attention, you’ll notice how often people accused of extremism, terrorism and other serious crimes, and are serving long sentences, were initially arrested on fabricated charges, subjected to administrative punishment, and were supposed to be held in custody for 10-15 days. But, during this time, “bouncers” from departments to combat crime apply terrible torture to them, after which they are forced to confess the crime, which they actually did not commit.

Our organization has long been calling upon the international organizations to pay attention to this.

Previously, our organization worked on a case of several men, who were arrested for administrative violations, and held in custody for 10-15 days. During their arrest, they were subject to severe torture, after which they confessed committing murder, robbery and rape. Agents of law enforcement institutions were brought as victims in these cases. However, in 2004-2005, during one year, our organization finally proved that these men were not guilty, after which they were released from prison.

I myself am a victim of torture, and I was able to make a complaint and submit it to the UN Committee on Human Rights. In preparing the complaint, I was helped by the International Federation for Human Rights and by REDRESS, human rights organization that helps torture survivors, headquartered in London. In my book “Prisoner of Torture Island”, I detailed the torture and inhumane treatment applied to women prisoners in Uzbekistan. Currently, the book is being translated into English, and will be published in western countries.

Jarayon: Perhaps, after your release, you’ve thought a lot about your life in prison and tried to analyze everything happened in prison in Uzbekistan. We are interested in the personality and the way of thinking of guards, who apply torture to prisoners. Who are they? What their eyes look like? What was reflected in their eyes during the torture: pleasure or regret from the hopelessness?

Tadjibayeva: You know, in a women’s prison, I often met people who have been tortured. In the women’s prison, I was considered “a criminal rampant” and number one “ardent offender.”

From July 2006 to June 2007, I was subject to disciplinary punishment more than 20 times. During this period of time, I was put to isolation and solitary confinement for 112 days in total. I was the “offender”, who suffered most of the disciplinary punishment, and who was put in solitary confinement and isolation more than others. Furthermore, due to the fact that I suffered psychological and physical torture of guards, but did not “play to their tune”, my credibility among women prisoners increased, and they began to respect me more.

Female prisoners were very cautious during the shifts of female guards, who became like zombies, who tortured, humiliated and abused female prisoners. I don’t even dare to call these guards women. Female prisoners informed each other to be careful saying, “Today is Lojka’s shift” or “Today Nazira is on duty.”

Sometimes, when these guards swore, mocked and humiliated female prisoners, who were old enough to be their mothers, I thought of the Gestapo people from the war time movies, when they mocked captive Soviet women. Those days, when these female guards came to work in a bad mood because of the problems in their family or because they quarreled with their lovers, they “vented out” their anger on female prisoners.

The most tragic about this is that doctors, who work in prisons, are actively involved in torturing the prisoners. Despite serious health conditions of prisoners, they signed the documents and wrote: “Prisoner is absolutely healthy, and can continuously work in the industrial zone,” or “Prisoner is in good health, I allow taking her to the isolation cell.”

I can say for sure that Yuliya Yuryevna Kumarina, chief doctor of the women’s prison, Bakhtiyor Toshhodzhaev, chief doctor on mental illness, and dentist Muhabbat (forgot her second name) made every effort to make me disabled person.

Prison officials mock women prisoners. Unfortunately, over the years the number of women prisoners, who are dying because of the torture, is not reduced. I think that we will do good to society, if we expose people who use torture.

Jarayon: We read and hear a lot about the different kinds of torture applied to prisoners in Uzbekistan. Is there any specific kind of torture, which is applied only to women prisoners?

Tadjibayeva: The most terrible torture applied only to women in prisons of Uzbekistan is rape. Unfortunately, only 2-3 percent of victims of common torture, despite ineffectiveness, struggle for justice. Raped women, however, cannot talk about their rights at all.

I heard from one of the prisoners that a Muslim woman refused to testify against her husband, who was imprisoned for his religious beliefs, and then, the Uzbek law enforcement agents stripped her naked, and raped her with glass bottle. Later, when I was able to speak with this woman personally, she said she did not want to remember those days.

She said God knew and saw those inhumane acts, and it was her belief that one day these people would be punished was comforting her soul. Then, when I saw sorrow and suffering in the eyes of this small Muslim woman, I could not even imagine her condition during the torture. I fully felt her good condition, because I myself was a victim of such violence.

During the appeal trial, I filed a written complaint that on April 15, 2005, when I was driving in a taxi in Tashkent to attend a press conference at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I was kidnapped by police and then tossed to three terrible men, who tortured and raped me. In my complaint, I asked to open a criminal case on this fact, but the court did not even pay attention to this tragedy.

When I was kept in Tashkent prison, I witnessed one case:

A woman named Sabohat Sherkulova, who was arrested for her religious beliefs, was brought to Tashkent prison for additional investigation, done for their religious beliefs. She was taken to a separate cell. Later, prisoners Yelena Maksimova and Gulnoza Shaipova, both lesbians, entered Sherkulova’s cell. They were members of the special torture army used by prison administration.

Then I witnessed how these two women began brutally tortured Sabohat using their methods. There was a terrible cry, which echoed to the entire prison. Torturers left Sabohat Sherkulova alone only after female prisoners in the neighboring cells started showing their dissatisfaction.

In the coldest winter days, prison administration used to take off warm jackets from female inmates, who did not fulfill their illegal demands, or did not sing the anthem of Uzbekistan during the morning check, or sand it poorly, and tossed them into a “zoo” in the isolation facility and kept them there for hours. Cold and wet from snow and rain, these women prisoners began shaking fences of the “zoo”, crying and begging prison administration to give them warm clothes and free from this place.

At this time, I sat shivering on the floor of icy isolation cell with open windows, and the cry of those women was making my condition even worse. Because I was a human rights activist, who, in this situation, suffered not only from inability to help these women in under the snow, but also from helplessness to aid myself.

There is a variety of torture used in women’s prisons.

It is worth noting that women, created by Allah so delicate and fragile, spend their each day in prison caring about how to eat enough. For one piece of sugar they throw forbidden things under the pillow of their cellmates, who, as a result, are taken to isolation cell. The prison administration uses this bad condition of prisoners to their advantage. There is no severe torture for a person in the right mind than knowing that the person next to you can betray you for some unworthy piece of cloth.

Jarayon: Do you think that Uzbekistan can soon become a country that does not practice torture and where human rights are highly valued?

Tadjibayeva: As a person, who miraculously survived torture in Uzbekistan, I can say that we have to fight very hard and very long to make Uzbekistan free from torture, where human rights are truly appreciated.

First, if the Uzbek government does not recognize that torture is systematic in the country and does not provide grounds to legally prosecute members of administrative bodies for torture, the torture mechanism cannot stop.

In addition, we need to make sure that western politicians, when dealing with Uzbekistan, are paying their first attention to the issue of human rights, which is currently in the last place of interest. I believe that during various meetings and negotiations the question of human rights should be a priority issue.

When I was in prison, women prisoners, who saw incessant torture used against me, thought I was doing myself the victim of torture, and warned that it would end badly, and advised me that I should take the opportunity to get to freedom. I still feel pain in my heart, when I remember those times how, after coming out of isolation cell in a bad condition, some women inmates hugged me with tears in their eyes and said that I should try to stay alive.

I was not tired telling them that it was not so easy to achieve justice, but I believeed in the victory of justice. I tried to convince myself that there was truth in these words.

Truth, justice are like the torch on a high mountain top. I told myself: “You should go safely through the thickets, with snakes and scorpions in them, the trail, where predators roam, the swamps, where bloodthirsty crocodiles hunt.” I told to myself that in order to achieve the truth and to see how justice is established, I should not be afraid of pain, as I could not afford to let my friends and likeminded people be in a situation like mine, that I should fight against so many enemies.

When I was in prison, I said to administration that my spirit was not broken, that I believed in my freedom, and set a goal to write a book called “Prisoner of Torture Island”, which would expose the crimes committed by them to the whole world.

As you can see, today I am continuing to fight along with other human rights defenders. I finished writing the book “Prisoner of Torture Island,” which exposes the crimes of those, who use torture in prisons of Uzbekistan. At the moment, one of the most famous publishing houses in the world is translating my book and preparing it for publication.

What I want to say by this? If we continue to fight with faith and hope, then one day Uzbekistan will become a country free of torture, where human rights are respected. I believe that then we can celebrate the true independence of the country together with our fellow countrymen. In order to achieve this, we must be ready for the very hard fight ahead of us.

Jararyon: Ms.Tadjibayeva, thank you for the interview.

You can find the full text of the interview on the Uzbek language page of our website.