Sobira Kholdorova

Sobira Kholdorova (1907, Chust, Uzbekistan – 1984) is the first female Uzbek journalist who became a victim of repression.

Biography
Sobira Kholdorova was born in 1907 in the city of Chust, Namangan, in a poor peasant family. When she was orphaned by her father when she was young, her mother returned to her father's house. Sobira Kholdorova grows up under the care of her uncle. However, after her uncle died in 1918, she was adopted by a distant relative. Later, the underage girl is married off to an older man. Sobira, who did not agree to her marriage, was beaten and locked in a barn by her husband. Sobira runs away from there. The police officers who found her handed her over to children's boarding school No. 5 in Kokand. Sobira Kholdorova studied at a boarding school and learned the Russian language. She surprised her teachers with her talent. In 1923, she came to Tashkent and studied at the Women's Educational Institute for two years. Later, she studied at the Higher Institute of Journalism in Moscow. During her student years, she married Momin Usmanov from Kokand. Her son Polat was born in Moscow.

After returning to Tashkent, she worked in the editorial offices of several newspapers and magazines. In 1937, she was imprisoned on charges of "communicating with bourgeois elements, losing consciousness." In October 1937, she became mentally ill as a result of physical torture, such as starvation, dehydration, and sleep deprivation. On December 5, 1940, she was exiled to Yakutia for 10 years. Momin Usmanov, her husband, was also shot on October 4, 1938. After the court verdict on exile, her children Polat and Manzura were transferred to the orphanage.

Sobira Kholdorova returned from prison in 1955. After that, she wrote an application in the name of Nikita Khrushchev, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU of the USSR. In it, she talks about her experiences, her difficult fate, and her rejection of the slanders made during the investigation. Rejecting the accusations, the dependent informs that she was exiled in Yakutia and spent several years in a psychiatric hospital. On June 22, 1956, it was announced that she was acquitted. On November 12, 1956, her husband Momin Usmanov was also acquitted.

Sobira Kholdorova suffers from mental illness until the end of her life. She died in 1984.