The lakes, mountains and brisk air of Uzbekistan’s Bustanlik district lie just a few dozen kilometers from the urban sprawl of Tashkent, and tourists as well as conference delegates retreat there for a break or to learn and exchange ideas. Sometimes, people attending a hotel conference barely get outside to absorb the beauty of the surrounding national parks. That’s what happened to me, a reporter for The Times of Central Asia. But then, I found some inspiration within the hotel’s bland walls.
I was attending a training course on data journalism for a few days in Bustanlik. During dinner, hotel employees mentioned that Dilorom Yuldasheva, an Uzbek woman internationally acclaimed for her resolve and accomplishment after a catastrophic injury, was also staying there after appearing at an event in Tashkent. Soon after, around 50-60 people in the hotel restaurant applauded as a bouquet was handed to Yuldasheva. It seemed that the hotel administration had arranged the small celebration because most guests weren’t aware that she was there.
I approached her table, introducing myself and asking if she’d be willing to talk. She smiled and agreed. Yuldasheva wore light makeup and spoke softly. At the start of our conversation, I mentioned that I already knew her from media coverage. Then I asked if she could share something she had never told anyone before.
“There’s nothing left untold,” she said. “But if you’d like, I can tell you the same stories again, just for you.”
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The BBC released a list of 100 influential and inspiring women for 2024, highlighting women who “have had to dig deep and find new levels of resilience” while facing violence and humanitarian crises in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan, as well as polarization surrounding a record number of international elections, and the growing challenges of climate change. On the list are stranded astronaut Sunita Williams, rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot, actress Sharon Stone, Olympic athletes Rebeca Andrade and Allyson Felix, singer Raye, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, visual artist Tracey Emin, climate campaigner Adenike Oladosu and writer Cristina Rivera Garza.
Also on that list is Yuldasheva, a 41-year-old seamstress and entrepreneur from Denov, in Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya region. The village where she lives is mainly engaged in livestock raising, crop farming, and gardening.
In 2021, while helping with the grain harvest, she lost both her legs in an accident. That day, she had been wearing a long robe to protect herself from the sun, a common style of dress among rural women, many of whom consider it shameful for them to wear trousers. As she worked near a combine harvester, the fabric got caught in the machine’s moving parts, pulling her in. She struggled frantically, and in vain, to escape.
“I didn’t even have time to scream, and when I opened my eyes, I was sitting on the combine harvester, but this didn’t last long. The combine harvester blade spun and threw me several meters away,” she said.
In August 2022, Yuldasheva was fitted with prosthetic legs after she and her relatives saved up about 67 million sums, the equivalent of about $5,000. An elderly couple in her neighborhood offered to give her their Hajj savings, in a year when the trip cost nearly USD5,000 per person. But she couldn’t accept. She knew how long they had waited for that Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Yuldasheva, who has a daughter and two sons, fought off despair and focused on something she had always wanted to do — help young women gain skills and financial independence.
That goal led her to open her own sewing business last year.
The Uzbek government got involved, seeing her as an example of determination to people with disabilities and others and as a way to encourage people to engage in entrepreneurship. A film titled “Matonat” (Resilience in Uzbek) was made about her story with support from the Ministry of Justice, various non-governmental organizations, and sponsors.
Dilorom Yuldasheva, who became an entrepreneur after losing her legs in a farming accident, was included on the BBC’s list of inspiring, influential women for 2024. Photo: TCA, Sadokat Jalolova
As a child, Yuldasheva wanted to become a seamstress. When teachers asked about her plans, she always gave the same answer. As the eldest of four siblings, she learned sewing at school and from women in her makhalla, or neighborhood. She had hoped to study at Tashkent’s “Mashhura” training center, which teaches trades to young women. But her plans were thrown into disarray after her father, an electrician, died in 2002 from an electric shock while he was working with faulty wiring in a column.
Born and raised in the village of Oltinsoy, another village in Surkhandarya, Yuldasheva married in 2004 and moved to Denov, where life wasn’t easy.
“In the makhalla where I became a bride, women mostly worked in the fields under harsh conditions,” she recalled. “I don’t want rural women to struggle in the heat. Even if they don’t work in offices like city women, they should at least have jobs in comfortable places. I think sewing and textiles are much better suited for them than field labor.”
Yuldasheva had received offers of help in starting a sewing business after her accident. She hesitated. She lived in a shared home with a brother-in-law and his family and worried the noise of sewing machines would disturb others. Eventually, she took the leap. “So far, I’ve provided work for 15 women, but my goal is to increase that number to 40,” Yuldasheva said. “I received four sewing machines from the “Ayol va Zamon” training center NGO, one on a subsidy, and two more on my own.”
Her employees, who range in age from 15 to 45, mainly sew school uniforms, work clothes, and bedding for kindergartens. The biggest source of income comes from bridal dresses.
Despite the success of the business, the entrepreneur has had more personal doubts. At one point, she told her husband, Dilmurod Pardayev, that he should remarry because she thought her disability made her a burden. “A brave man doesn’t do that,” she recalled her husband saying. “This made me love him even more,” Yuldasheva said. Currently, her family lives with one brother-in-law, whose wife helps Yuldasheva with housework.
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Living in a small village, Yuldasheva had never imagined the recognition she would get after being named in the BBC list. After the announcement, her phone was flooded with congratulatory calls, and television reporters showed up at her house.
In December 2024, she was awarded the order of “Mardlik” (Courage) by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, becoming the first woman to receive an honor usually reserved for military personnel. She briefly spoke to the president on Zoom.
“The day I went to receive the order, asphalt workers were sent to the street in our makhalla. Within 3 days, asphalt was laid on our street,” Yuldasheva said. She was pleased to see children playing in a street that was now free of dust in the summer and mud in the winter.
The street, which had been difficult to navigate for many years, was paved after Yuldasheva came to the attention of the president.
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Despite Uzbek government support and recognition from the BBC list last year, Yuldasheva said she had faced immense difficulties after her accident in the fields. She registered to get an electric chair by waiting in line at the makhalla office with a medical certificate. The process was slow. Local officials brought a wheelchair to her home and photographed her for the paperwork, but they took the chair back several months later, saying there was a mixup and it was actually meant for someone else.
“In that moment, I felt like I had lost my legs for the second time,” she said.
Electric wheelchairs are especially preferable in rural areas because more basic wheelchairs require manual steering, which means hands quickly get covered in mud, according to Yuldasheva.
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The seamstress has a strict work ethic: “No matter how I feel, I always finish what I start. Even if I’m hungry, I’ll complete a dress before I eat.”
When Yuldasheva suffered her injury, her eldest child was in seventh grade (14-15 years), her daughter in fourth (10-11 years), and her youngest in first grade (7-8 years). “They would come home from school crying,” she recalled. “I wanted to be a mother they could be proud of.”
At one point, Uzbekistan’s Paralympic Committee invited her to join a volleyball team and offered to cover all expenses. The training in Nukus, Karakalpakstan would take two years. But her family advised her against it, prioritizing her health and the well-being of her children.
“Thanks to sewing, I’m financially independent. I don’t even ask my husband for money,” said Yuldasheva, whose business brings in a monthly income of around 60 million sums, or between USD4,000 and USD5,000. That amount accounts for expenses such as fabric and decoration.
Now, she’s thinking about new ventures. A businesswoman from the city of Jizzakh recently introduced her to floriculture, and she plans to try her hand at growing flowers in the spring. Meanwhile, her eldest son is interested in livestock, and she said she fully supports his passion.
“We might start a small farm together.”
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Even as Yuldasheva remembered the most painful moments of her life, her tone never wavered during our late-night discussion. She was open with the media, agreeing to talk without hesitation. When a hotel employee asked if she was willing to share feedback, she immediately said yes. She was comfortable in the spotlight. But I also concluded that this was a collective story, not just about one person’s perseverance. The people of Surkhandarya rallied around her – neighbors offering their Hajj savings, relatives pooling money for her prosthetics, her brother-in-law’s wife helping with household tasks. She wasn’t alone.
Sergey Kwan
