President Karimov said in his Women’s Day speech that Uzbekistan needs more women in politics.
…only by ensuring women’s decent representation in the legislative, executive and judicial bodies and making this norm compulsory in our social life, I am confident that we will be able to take a significant step on the path of fair resolution of problems we are facing, and building a legal and democratic state and civil society.
Might he be looking to increase female representation in the top executive? CentrAsia recently carried a story attributed to Nezavisimiya Gazeta suggesting that Gulnora Karimova is the most acceptable candidate to succeed Islam Karimov. (TOL carried a BBC Monitoring translation of the story.)
A successor of [Uzbek President] Islom Karimov should equally suit representatives of all Uzbek clans. Some experts say the most attractive candidate in this respect is the president’s daughter Gulnora Karimova. There are people in Uzbekistan and in the West who are ready to support her candidacy in the elections [apparently the forthcoming presidential election in 23 December 2007]. As for Gulnora herself, she has so far been categorically against it, by dismissing these kinds of reports saying “All this is groundless talk”.
Aleksei Malashenko is quoted in the story saying that Karimova’s chances of becoming president are slim, but that Uzbekistan’s elites would probably be happy with her.
The rest of the story is rather interesting. It lists her career achievements in business and government, involvement in charities,
and promotion of culture. The story also talks up her personality, mentioning that she is “rational and firm in her convictions” and “natural and sincere.”
But what would dear old dad do if she took over his job? IWPR speculates that he might be planning to become prime minister. The recently passed constitutional amendment that increases the power of political parties and requires presidential consultation with parties goes into effect in January, when Karimov is supposed to step down as president.
An NBCentralAsia observer in Tashkent believes the president launched these changes as a way of engineering a shift towards a parliamentary system in which he would be prime minister.
“At the beginning of next year, Islam Karimov could become prime minister with everything that entails – he gets to run the state again but fends off accusations from critics abroad that he has usurped power,” said the commentator.
Well, that sure would be something.
This post was written by...
Nathan Hamm – author of 2974 posts on Registan.net.
Nathan is the Founding Editor and Publisher of Registan.net, which he launched in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with private and government clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural and political factors shape risks and opportunities and how organizations can adjust their strategic and operational plans to account for these variables. Nathan is currently seeking research, analysis, and consulting opportunities. He can be contacted via Twitter or email.
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{ 12 comments }
The suggestion that she would be favorably viewed by the (Uzbek) elites does not hold much water… and likely sourced by those that are not inclined to express an opinion to the contrary. Of course this doesn’t mean it’s not possible, and it sure is interesting to speculate.
This has weird penumbras (if you will) of how leadership changes in China work, with the former premier maintaining a lot of power while the new premier steps into his role. And clearly the best thing for Uzbekistan right now is hereditary leadership, since Islam Karimov is so popular.
“And clearly the best thing for Uzbekistan right now is hereditary leadership, since…is so popular”…
That comment alone deserves an award…classic….
I don’t mean to dismiss this idea out of hand, because I do think it’s kind of fun food for thought, but I love the way analysis like this claim to know “what the clans want” or “what has to happen to keep the clans in alignment” but aren’t able to give a single example of who the “clans” are and who’s in them. It’s just too complicated to talk about patron-client networks, or warring ministries in the government, or even mafias (which is, after all, such an appealing paradigm to Americans) but since the Uzbeks are an eastern people, then their post-Soviet oligarchs must be “clans,” the political process in the country must be explainable by qurultays and other mysterious affairs of the East.
To their credit, the authors of this article at least stripped Gulnora of her Harvard PhD that she mysteriously “grew” a year or two ago and occasionally still pops up in her biographies.
Incidentally, I was talking to someone at Harvard not long ago who knew her pretty well when she was here (for an MA in Russian and Central Asian area studies, as the record shows when it’s right) and it turns out she seems to have changed a great deal since then. There was a time when she was not the business shark primadonna that she is now. People who knew her then seem to be uncomfortably surprised that she turned out the way she has. I’ve heard that her young marriage into the Afghan mafia was both not kind to her and also not her choice. Not that this excuses her behavior (or her singing), but I thought it was interesting food for thought.
Firm in her convictions, perhaps, but “rational” and “sincere”?????!!
I went to school with her. She was a great salesperson. She would tell you exactly what you wanted to hear, which should serve her well in the government. Only concern, over the years, she has created far too many enemies to survive without the papa.
She has a good chance of winning presidency. Gulnara and her dad will boil those that don’t vote for her.
I think her father wants her to be in power so she can steal even more as if she has not stolen enough from the Uzbek people.
You don’t like Googoosha’s singing? What?
I used to tell friends that a lot of America’s problems will be solved when we have a President that grew up playing Super Mario Bros. But how about a President that’s been in Music Videos? Got to be something to be said for that.
u will be shot for besmirching our queen!
and fergit `bout ever gittin visa ether!
she is a bitch,,,, she is sooo stupid…. she wants to be the only 1 who is powerful and also she took her kidz from thier father n i hard he stole money 4rm u isit tru u fucking bitch?
she is sooo poor girl she steals 4rm every1