Farida Afroz

Farida Afroz (real name Farida Qo'ziyevna Butayeva) was born on 5 March 1956 in Kokand, in the Fergana Valley. She attended School No. 10 in Kokand and wrote her first poem in the fifth grade; it was printed at the time in the newspaper Lenin uchquni. As a schoolgirl she read her poems at the city's literary circles, contests and olympiads.

She studied at the Muqimiy Kokand State Pedagogical Institute (1970s). She began work at the Kokand literary museum, then taught at the Fergana art school, was a literary staff member of the newspaper Avangard in Bagdad district and headed the youth creative association “Iste'dod” in Uchkoprik district. Later she directed the creative enterprise “Shuur” under a public centre for spirituality and enlightenment, was deputy editor-in-chief of the Ministry of Justice's legal magazine Hayot va Qonun, head of the art department at the Ghafur Ghulam Publishing House of Literature and Art, and editor-in-chief of the “Yozuvchi” publishing house.

She has been a member of the Writers' Union of Uzbekistan since 1994. Her first collection, “Qirq kokilligim”, appeared in 1986, followed by “Iztirob ko'ylagi” (1992), “Tunlar isyoni” (1994), “Ko'zim manim...” (1999), “O'zimdan o'zimgacha” (2001), “Ushshoq” (2004), “Tasbih” (2006) and “O'sha kun bugundir” (2012). In 2000 she wrote the historical drama “Qurbonjon dodxoh”, and her poems have also been released as audiobooks.

Her poems have been translated into Russian, Turkish, English, German, French, Persian, Uyghur, Azerbaijani, Gagauz, Chinese and Korean. She has also translated into Uzbek poems by Turkish poets such as Ziya Gokalp and Ismet Ozel, samples of Persian, Kazakh and Karakalpak poetry, and books by Dale Carnegie.

She is general director of the “Afroz Records” sound studio. In 2020 she became a deputy of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan and worked on its committee for science, education, culture and sport; in December 2024 she was appointed deputy chair of the Writers' Union of Uzbekistan.

She received the “Shuhrat” medal in 1999, the chest badge “10 Years of Independence of Uzbekistan” in 2001 and the Order of Friendship (“Do'stlik”) in 2017; in 2025 she was given the title Honoured Cultural Worker of Uzbekistan.