Sobirahon Israilova

My great-grandma(Salomathon), who recently celebrated her 87th birthday, was the first x-ray specialist of the village where our family originated from: Oyim, Andijan, Uzbekistan. She was the eldest daughter, whose childhood was cut short after losing her father and she was forced to grow up at an incredibly young age, therefore seeing her mother struggle endlessly under the rule of vile, angry men. She was the first woman in Oyim who wanted to pursue a higher education, especially one of the hardest ones.

At 18, she got accepted into medical school on a full-ride scholarship and with countless numbers of sleepless nights, she was named the 'First Screening Professional of Oyim city'. However, she was never just a doctor, she was also a midwife, mother, sister and wife. Having a dozen kids was counted as a blessing and a must for women, but because of the lack of trained professionals, my great-grandma had to step up as a midwife. Her mother wanted her to get married quickly because she feared that she wouldn't live to see her grandchildren, and so my great-grandmother got married straight out of university, and had her first child at 22: my grandmother. My grandmother's father was abusive, he did not want a daughter that would get married and leave him, he wanted a son who would always be by his side, so he left when my grandma was 3 years old. My great-grandma remarried.

This is my great-grandfather Maxsumbek, he fell in love with Salomathon when he was getting a screening for himself and asked her if they could get to know each other, soon enough they were both madly in love that they got married pretty quickly and had two sons. They lived very happily together as a family, and my great-grandpa accepted my grandma as his own daughter and gave her lots of love and support. After losing her father and now her first husband, my great-grandmother held on very tight to her little family and never let them out of her sight, until her eldest son was innocently imprisoned for being religious. During the reign of the first president of Uzbekistan,Islam Karimov, a group of terrorists planned to murder and assassinate him. The government suspected that Muslim men were involved, and as a result, my grandmother's step-brother, who was a devoted Muslim, was arrested, despite having no connection to the assassination attempt. He spent 23 years in prison (1999-2022).

My great-grandma, however, never lost her faith and just as her mother did with her husband, my great-grandma waited for her eldest son, refusing and rejecting death. But, in the process of losing her son, she never thought she would be losing her husband too, permanently. I remember his death, how my mother and I rushed to Oyim from Tashkent in tears and agony. When we arrived, my great-grandma looked extremely shattered, but she held a smile and said "Allah needed him more than I did." His funeral was beautiful, but it felt empty without his eldest son being there to say his final goodbye to his father. But during his lifetime, they both raised wonderful children, and being inspired by her mother, my grandmother became the first pediatrician of Oyim.

This is my beautiful grandmother, Mohirahon, she is the most popular woman in Oyim as she is the only provider of pure gold in her city as well as being the only pediatrician of her time. My grandma faced a lot of loss, but also a lot of happiness in her lifetime. Despite being loved endlessly by her step-father, she still always waited for her own dad to one day come and accept her for her, but he never did, and that left her feeling unnecessary, and unwanted. After her marriage to my grandpa, she gave birth to my mum and my 3 uncles and they lived a content life for about 10 years. After a decade, my grandpa's business started booming and he moved permanently to Russia, because he is half-Russian, where he was developing his business even more.

She would go to Russia every so often along with my uncles (they didn't want a girl to be going abroad at a young age, which is ironic, because now the only girl in the family is the one living abroad). During her trips to Russia, my grandmother discovered that gold was both cheaper and of higher quality than in Uzbekistan. She began bringing gold back home to sell, and it turned out to be highly profitable, allowing her to earn far more than she ever imagined. Even though she still had a supportive husband, he was constantly away, so she often says "I was basically a single mother, I raised my kids all alone and they turned out just fine". And they did, they turned out better than just fine, all my uncles have extremely successful businesses and my mum is now the first person to be doing a PhD abroad.