An acquaintance

I first met the candidate of economic sciences Toyiba Tulyaganova in March 1990. We discussed the creation of commissions In between sessions.

Someone knocked at the door, and a woman went inside and said softly, “My name is Toyiba Tulyaganova, I was enrolled in the Law Commission, may I join you?

In response, Erkin Vohidov, then head of the Publicity Commission, told her,

“I have to discuss this issue with Islam aka. We may not make any decisions on our own.

We argued a little about it. Those days, no one really cared about the words that one needs to consult the other before making a decision. We called Toyiba to our meeting, and that day, at the session, she left the Legislative Commission, and joined our commission. She was even elected as Secretary of our commission.

Soon thereafter, the Commissions were called in the Uzbek “qumitalar”, while their leaders began to work in the Oliy Kengash (Supreme Soviet) on an ongoing basis.

At the very first session Islam Karimov and the rest noticed Toyiba’s courage. Some turned shivery, the others were expecting something.

During her speeches, Toyiba emphasized the support of the Birlik people’s movement. During her first speaking, she started her speech with “Birlik” and then she started to speak about Islam Karimov, a presidential candidate.

In her speech, she was speaking about the situation when a presidential rule in current Uzbekistan will strengthen the power of the president, and that seeking democracy we will be faced with a dictatorship, and that despite the different “appearance” of the president brought up by the Communist Party, the inward habit will never change.

Moreover, she showed the ways out of this situation. In her speech, Toyiba expressed the necessity in the parliamentary government in order to establish democracy in the country.

Karimov was so angry that he forgot where he was.

“This idea cannot belong to a woman. Women are small-minded, so this proposal comes from some external forces,” Islam Karimov, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, member of Politburo of the CPSU, said, thus humiliating Toyiba Tulyaganova

But during the break, while giving interviews to local reporters, Karimov said even worse things like “women can be cat-witted”.

At the first session, many have discovered not only the true face of Islam Karimov, but made the first step to knowing Toyiba Tulyaganova.

A humiliation

Only a scoundrel can humiliate a woman. Later on, Karimov often humiliated Toyiba. He began to block her access to self-protection. Once, during a session, Karimov addressed Academician Ahmadali Askarov and said about Toyiba (JM: I am sorry for citing Karimov, but the reader must know what he is),

“You are seeking a wet woman,” Karimov said.

Toyiba left the session in tears. The world stood still in silence. This was the first time when I realized what blood pressure was. When I got up and walked toward the microphone, Erkin aka pulled me by the sleeve of my suit and said,

“Don’t forget, we are working at the same office, and people could draw wrong conclusions, Vohidov said and prevented me from speaking.

Then Toyiba divorced her first husband, and wanted to marry again. Erkin aka knew about the reasons and would sometimes talk about them. However, I was never concerned with anybody’s personal life. Once, when I went into the office, Erkin aka hurried out of the room, while Toyiba was in tears. When I asked her what happened, she replied,

“Men are not humans, Erkin aka is neither…” she said.

After that, I was always treating Toyiba with respect and esteem, maybe to prove her that “men are humans, too”.

Erkin aka, Toyiba and I used to work in the same office. The desk of Erkin aka was standing in one corner. My desk was in another corner. A long desk for visitors was standing right in the middle of the office. Toyiba was sitting at the edge of this desk.

When Erkin aka told about the working conditions to Mirzaolim Ibrahimov, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, he told him that it was “necessary to consult Islam aka on that matter”. Erkin aka was a very cautious person. He had never brought up this issue again.

Once, I had an opportunity to tell Karimov about the working conditions.

“You were saying about the suspension of all privileges at the first session, weren’t you? And now you are seeking the privileges,” Karimov suggested.

“We are not seeking the privileges, but normal working conditions. Do we have to ask the president that Toyiba should be given a desk?” I replied.

He ranted about what and who should be asked for and then added,

“Don’t let Toyiba so often into the committee. What can I do if there is no vacant space? Are you suggesting vacating the president’s office? Or maybe she could work in the vacated vice president’s office?” Karimov said showing disgust to everyone speaking about Toyiba.”

During the very first session, Karimov got angry when he heard the name of Toyiba, which “disclosed” the nature of the first president-to-be,

“Erkin aka’s wife is complaining that he as well as you stopped coming home because of that woman…”

He seemed to either have noticed how my face expression changed or understood that he had went too far and stopped. Later on, I often heard that he used to record all talks between men and women and then he would blackmail them. I was not surprised when I heard how many executives fell into his trap.

Karimov was attempting to tarnish the image of Toyiba for a long time. Even during the session, she frankly told in tears how Karimov gave special instructions to Prosecutor Kahramon Sotiboldiev, who came to Toyiba with some unusual offer. Such vile games made Toyiba cry, but could not bring her down.

Afterwards, Karimov attacked Toyiba openly.

The activity of the Publicity Commission was under investigation. Once, during the sessions, they were talking about me who always made a fuss and Toyiba. It turned out that we had no respect to Islam Karimov. The whole problem came down to this.

Jahongir Hamidov, secretary for ideology of the Communist Party, was speaking continuously about it at the session. “Father” of Uzbek Komsomol Aziz Nosirov, Prosecutor of Tashlak region, and Kahramon Sotiboldiev, that later on was appointed hokim of Tashlak region, emphasized this issue, as well.

At the end, they put the issue of “Displacement of deputy chairman of the committee and secretary of the committee” to vote. I remained in the committee because someone gave me one vote more. It was Erkin aka who couldn’t vote against me. When it was Toyiba’s turn, the committee separated into two groups. First deputy of Supreme Soviet Bugrov told Erkin aka,

“If we don’t sack them, we’ll have to close the committee. It was the order!

Toyiba asked,

“Who gave this order? Is it the Communist office again? How can a dead body speak?”

Erkin aka got to his feet immediately and told her in Russian,

“No one can insult the administration. It is a holy thing for us.”

Afterwards, he said in Uzbek,

“I cannot stand this Toyiba’s insult and I will vote against her,” Erkin aka sais and thus announced the “verdict”.

The discussion

Despite the fact that Toyiba was dismissed from the post of secretary of the committee, the members of parliament could remove her from the commission only during the session. Therefore, Toyiba kept on coming to work prior to the session as usual.

Once she said,

“I’ve found out that today they will be discussing me in the local community. Could you, Erkin aka, as our chairman, and you, Jahongir aka, as deputy chairman, come over and say something?

“We will come over,” we both said.

Later in the afternoon I could not find Erkin aka. It turned out, as always, that he had some “urgent matters”. We gathered a few members of the Supreme Soviet, and went to the local community where Toyiba lived. The meeting was held in the school hall. There were mostly old men and all of them were looking disappointed. Some of them recognized me because I was often shown on TV and started to greet me.

The head of the district opened the meeting and turned the floor over to an elderly man. This man said they had chosen Toyiba not to go against the President, but to solve their problems. Others started to repeat his words, and at the end they agreed that they “did not need such a member of parliament.”

I asked for the floor and told the audience a legend about the Cemetery.

“Once upon a time, there lived a shah. He did not like to go to the cemetery. Even when his family died, he did not go there. One day he was asked why, and he replied,

“I’ve been telling lies and listening to lies all my life. My father used to say that one cannot enter the cemetery if one is telling lies, or else one will be exposed to eternal torment,” said Shah.

The elderly people were listening to the legend carefully. Afterwards, I changed to a simple explanation.

“The wages increased recently. The President signed the decree. Afterwards, the prices rose. The President did not sign that decree, but he ordered Prime Minister to do so. Then Toyiba said, “Why can’t you link the wages, especially retirees’ wages, to the market prices directly, without playing those games. Why can’t you make it so that the wages increase due to the market prices?” But she heard only President’s abuse. Then Toyiba asked, “Let the government budget be transparent. Where does the money go? Why there is always no money to recondition the roads, schools?”

Again she heard President’s abuse. Then Toyiba asked again, “When the police and the court will be fair? People lose their lives standing by the door of these offices.” But the President swore at her, “You are a deputy, so do not interfere in the affairs of the executive power.” Once Toyiba started talking about food-card coupons, “You have made people dependent on these food-card coupons. People have coupons, but there is no oil in stores; we grow cotton ourselves, and where does the cottonseed oil go?”

The president didn’t like it. The other day, when Toyiba told president, “Why don’t you travel on a bus and buy meat at a butcher one day? Or enter the ordinary house with ordinary people living in it one cold winter day?” the President again swore at her. I told the audience that after this incident Karimov ordered the executives who sat next to me to go to the community where Toyiba lived and discuss her candidacy. “That’s what it is all about,” I said to the audience.

The hall roared and people said,

“Why did he abuse her?”

“Our member of parliament talked about our pain, we are grateful to her!”

“Let the president come here and reply to us!” …

District executives scurried, the meeting was announced as a meeting of the Member of Parliament and the electorate, and ended up by founding Toyiba’s activity satisfactory.

Two days later, by order of Karimov, the Supreme Soviet’s chairman closed the Publicity Commission contrary to the law…

Meanwhile, Toyiba was removed from her position in Tashkent State University. She went to the meeting with Islam Karimov. And when we talked about it with her,

“I asked him about my work in Tashkent State University,” she said. “It turned out that if I quit politics, I can continue work.”

“And what will happen if you do not quit?” I asked her.

“He reminded me how he used to tell you, Samandar Kukanov, Murod Juraev that he will get “you rotten in jail”…

“So, he threatened you with “imprisonment”?

“No, he said, “Your soul is like a sparrow. Why do you need to be involved in politics, you should take care of your husband and children.” So, I want to quit politics.”

She smiled. But her smile had some hidden meaning, “There were a lot of things I cannot tell about.” I never saw her again. Then I was between a rock and a hard place myself.

When I lived abroad, I heard about the mysterious death of Toyiba. The first thing that came to my mind was ‘After all she did not quit politics’…

Jahongir Muhammad.