Sharifa Salimova, the People's Poet of Uzbekistan, passed away on August 5 at the age of 73. The news was confirmed by the press service of the Writers' Union. The funeral prayer will be held after the afternoon prayer at the Chigatoy mosque.
Salimova was born on December 30, 1951, in the Parkent district of the Tashkent region. She attended school from 1958 to 1968, and her first poems were published in the district newspaper "Sur'at". After graduating from the Faculty of Journalism at Tashkent State University in 1974, she began her career at the "Vatandosh" radio station under the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Uzbekistan.
Until 1987, Salimova worked her way up from junior editor to head of department at the radio. From 1989 to 1994, she served as head of department at the magazine "Saodat" and the weekly "Uzbekiston adabiyoti va san'ati". During these years, her journalistic articles addressing societal issues were published.
Salimova was also actively involved in state and public affairs. She served as a leading consultant on socio-political issues at the Presidential Administration (1998-1999), leading consultant on organizational and personnel policy (1999-2000), chairwoman of the Oliy Majlis Commission on Family and Women's Issues and deputy (2000-2005), and member of the Legislative Chamber's Committee on Labor and Social Issues and deputy (2005-2009).
Her creative work was dominated by poetry and journalism. Her first poetry collections, "The Joy of Life" (1978) and "My Spring" (1987), were published in the late 1970s and 1980s. The epic poem "Khizr Spring" (1996), dedicated to the 550th anniversary of Alisher Navoi, holds a special place; it tells of the tragic fate of women during the feudal era. The collection of journalistic articles "Oath to the Dawn" (2002) addresses the most pressing issues of the time.
Salimova authored numerous books, including "Seven Swans" (1991), "The Man Who Communicated with Herbs" (1996), "The Man Who Communicated with Herbs and Crossed Mountains" (2007), "Scholarship and Humanity" (2011), "Image of the Motherland" (2011), "The Path of Loyalty" (2016), "Journey into the Animal World" (2016), "Tomaris" (2016), "Drops of a Sleepless Night" (2018), and "The Alphabet of Birds". She translated works by Russian, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz poets, as well as the German poet and Islamic scholar Hadayatullah Hübsch, preparing the collection "Oh, Rose" for publication.
Salimova was the author of numerous journalistic articles on social issues. In works such as "Needles Piercing the Heart", "Is It Easy to Be a Woman?", "A Woman Committed a Crime", "The World of Halves", "A Lonely Woman: Who Is She?", and "Where Are Your Roots, Pain?", she raised women's issues. During her tenure as a deputy, she proposed legislative measures to address iodine deficiency, contributing to the adoption of the law "On Iodized Salt".
Her poems "Hold Your Head High, Woman", "Motherland", "My Sovereign Sultan", "It Frightens", and "You Are Doing Achom-achom" were set to music and performed by Yulduz Usmanova.
In 1994, Salimova was awarded the title "Honored Cultural Worker of the Republic of Uzbekistan", and in 2018, she was decorated with the "Mehnat shuhrati" order. Her legacy in Uzbek literature and culture is profound and enduring.
Source: www.gazeta.uz