Nurkhon Yuldashkhojayeva

Nurkhon Yuldashkhojayeva was born around 1913 in Margilan into an Uzbek family; her surname is often written Yuldasheva in sources. Her father is reported to have been a mingbashi in Margilan. Uzbek Wikipedia calls her the first Uzbek dancer to step onto the professional theatre stage.

In 1928 she left home and joined the concert and ethnographic ensemble led by Muhitdin Qori-Yoqubov, then based in Samarkand, where Usta Olim Komilov was her mentor. On 8 March 1928, International Women's Day, Nurkhon and other dancers removed their veils on stage, which at the time was seen as a step towards women's emancipation in Uzbek society.

On 1 July 1929, while the ensemble was on tour in Margilan, Nurkhon visited her relatives and was stabbed to death by her brother Salikhoja. The killing was found to have been premeditated; at trial her father and brother were found guilty and executed, and the mingbashi and a mullah were exiled. Thousands attended the funeral the next day, and women removed their veils before her coffin.

In the Soviet period her story was presented as a symbol of women's liberation: Komil Yashin wrote the musical drama Nurkhon (music by Tokhtasin Jalilov), and in 1968 a monument to her (sculptor Valentin Klebanov) was erected in Margilan. Her name is also linked with a cinema in Fergana.