Uzbekistan’s first female lawyer

The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology

29

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TYPE

Original Research

PAGE NO.

29-32

DOI

10.37547/tajpslc/Volume07Issue04-06

OPEN ACCESS

SUBMITED

14 February 2025

ACCEPTED

13 March 2025

PUBLISHED

12 April 2025

VOLUME

Vol.07 Issue04 2025

CITATION

Sultonov Oybek Sultonboyevich. (2025). Uzbekistan’s first female lawyer.

The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology, 7(04), 29

–

32.

https://doi.org/10.37547/tajpslc/Volume07Issue04-06

COPYRIGHT

© 2025 Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the creative commons attributes 4.0 License.

Uzbekistan’s first female

lawyer

Sultonov Oybek Sultonboyevich

Deputy head of the

Department of the General prosecutor’s office of the

Republic of Uzbekistan, Doctor of philosophy (PhD) law, Uzbekistan

Abstract:

Diloro (also known as Dinara) Yusupova

–

Uzbekistan’s first female lawyer, assistant to the

Prosecutor of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 1935. On
October 28, 1937, Diloro Yusupova was formally
charged under Article 68 of the Criminal Code of the
Uzbek SSR. After her release, Diloro Yusupova took full
responsibility for her family, rejoined the party, and was
reinstated in the pr

osecutor’s office. In 1939, she

worked in arbitration, and during World War II, she
served as the chair of the commission responsible for
the social welfare of military personnel and war-
disabled families.

Keywords:

Law, history, female, lawyer, wife, Sobirjon

Yusupov,

Muhammadjon

Muminov,

prosecutor,

Scientific Research Institute of Soviet Law.

Introduction:

Diloro (also known as Dinara) Yusupova

was born in 1911 in Bukhara. Her father, Sobirjon
Muhamedovich Yusupov (1881

–

1931), studied at a

vocational school in Tashkent from 1907 to 1910,
specializing in mechanics. In 1911, due to persecution by
the Tsarist secret police, he was forced to relocate to
Bukhara, where he became an active member of the

“Young Bukharans”

organization. However, in 1917,

Sobirjon Yusupov faced persecution by Emir Alim Khan

and moved to Tashkent with the “Young Bukharans”. His

knowledge of the Russian language and familiarity with
revolutionary movements enabled him to integrate
easily into political activities. In Tashkent, he
participated in the Council of Muslim Soldier Deputies
alongside figures such as Orif Kilibliev and Davlat
Mirzaev, attending meetings held from October 18 to
26, 1917. Later, he was invited to join the presidium of
the Kokand Autonomy government. Following the
violent suppression of the Turkestan Autonomy, he took
part in the Fifth Congress of the Soviets.

On December 16, 1918, Sobirjon Yusupov was among a
group that was received by Lenin. However, instead of
addressing the issues they had raised, the Bolshevik

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leader (“dohiysi” –

“the genius”, a term used by Soviet

propaganda to glorify Lenin) went on a lengthy
discourse about irrigation matters in Turkestan. From
that point forward, Soviet administrators kept a close
watch on Sobirjon Yusupov, recognizing his influence
and resourcefulness among the people. Until 1919,
Yusupov held the status of an RSFSR representative in
Turkestan. He later joined the fight against Admiral

Kolchak’s forces. In August 1920, he was sent t

o

Bukhara, where he served as the chairman of the

Revolutionary Committee of the Bukharan People’s

Soviet Republic (BuKhChK

–

Bukharan Cheka, the

secret police of the Bukharan People’s Soviet

Republic), the head of the Bukharan Cheka (ChK

–

Cheka, the Soviet secret police), military commissar,
and chief of the Shahrisabz militia. Later, he moved to

Tashkent, where he worked as the director of the “Kizil
Shark” teKhtile factory (“Red East”, a Soviet

-era

teKhtile factory).

Due to her father’s political stance, Diloro Yusupova’s

life was marked by persecution and eKhile. In 1917, she
and her mother were expelled from the Emirate of
Bukhara. Even after arriving in Tashkent, they were
first pursued by the Tsarist secret police and later
forced to live in constant hiding from Cheka
informants. During his years in eKhile, Sobirjon
Yusupov often disappeared for long periods, leaving
Diloro and her mother to move from place to place in
search of shelter.

In her autobiography, written in her own hand, Diloro
Yusupova describes this period as follows:

“My father was constantly on the run from the police.

He was arrested multiple times but repeatedly
escaped. Even when sentenced to execution, he
managed to flee again. After 1917, our family settled in
Tashkent. In 1918, my mother joined the party, while
my father was constantly at the front

—

first in

Orenburg, then on the Alma-Ata front, serving as the
chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council. My

father passed away in 1931”.

Despite these hardships, Diloro Yusupova, with the
support of kind-hearted individuals, was sent to
Moscow in 1922 by the Bukharan People's Republic to
pursue her education, despite her young age. There,
she studied under the Uzbek Education Institute. By
1924, thanks to her academic aptitude and active
participation in social activities, she had already gained
recognition among Uzbek students in Moscow. She

became the leader of the “Young Pioneers” student

group. In 1926, Yusupova graduated with eKhcellent
grades and returned to Tashkent, where she began
working at the district committee of the Tashkent
Komsomol. Simultaneously, she enrolled in the Faculty

of Soviet Economy and Law at the Central Asian State

University (CaГУ –

Среднеазиатский Государственный

Университет), specializing in the judicial department.

However, by 1929, she was unable to complete her
studies due to the closure of the law faculty.

For one year, she worked in Samarkand as an executive
secretary in the planning department of the Water
Management Administration. A significant turning point
in her life was her marriage to Muhammadjon Muminov
(1903

–

1938), a native of Namangan, whom she had met

five years earlier during her time in Moscow. This
important event in her life was also closely tied to
Samarkand.

Brief Biography of Muhammadjon Muminov

At the age of 20, Muhammadjon Muminov, along with
many of his peers, traveled to Moscow in 1923 under

the sponsorship of “Kumak” (a Soviet

-era support

organization that provided financial and educational
assistance to young Central Asians studying in Russia).
In 1924, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at Moscow
State University. At the end of 1928, he successfully

defended his thesis on “Prosecutorial Oversight in the
State Administration System” and gradua

ted with

honors (red diploma). Upon returning to Samarkand in
1928, Muminov became a member of the Collegium of
the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan. From 1931, he served

as the head of a department in the People’s

Commissariat of Justice of the Uzbek SSR. Between 1932
and 1935, he was appointed director of the Institute for
Scientific Research on Socialist Construction and Law.

Later, on Muminov’s initiative, this institute laid the

foundation for the establishment of a Law Institute.
Thanks to his dedication, numerous legal dictionaries,
journals, and books were published within a short

period. Notably, his 1932 book, “Na fronte teorii
gosudarstva i prava” (“On the Frontline of the Theory of
State and Law”), gained significant recognition in

academic circles.

D

iloro Yusupova, following Muhammadjon Muminov’s

recommendation, initially prepared for postgraduate
studies. In 1931, the couple moved to Tashkent, where
Diloro enrolled at the Scientific Research Institute of
Soviet Law. After successfully passing her final
eKhaminations in December 1934, she was assigned to

work at the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of

Uzbekistan. After completing her probationary period,
Yusupova was appointed Assistant to the Prosecutor of
the Republic of Uzbekistan in 1935. The young couple
was filled with happiness. Despite professional
challenges and the slander of envious individuals, they
remained engaged in lively discussions about new ideas
and legal writings. Their family grew as they raised their
son, Marat, and daughter, Surayyo.

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The Arrest of Muhammadjon Muminov

On the night of March 29, 1937, in the dead of night,
an unknown group knocked on the door of House No.
11 on Uezdnoy Street. Presenting an arrest warrant,
they forced the family members to stand against the
wall and searched the house until dawn. As morning
approached, they confiscated all belongings, took

Muminov away in the infamous “Black Raven” (Kora

Karga)

—the notorious PCIA (People’s Commissariat for

Internal Affairs, the Soviet secret police and
intelligence agency) vehicle used for political arrests

—

and sealed the remaining possessions. Ironically, the
owners of this house were prominent legal figures:
Muhammadjon Muminov, the Head of the Department
of Legal Assistance and Judicial Protection at the

People’s

Commissariat of Justice of the Uzbek SSR, and

Diloro Yusupova, the Assistant to the Prosecutor
General of the Uzbek SSR. Before leaving, the officers
sternly warned Diloro not to speak to anyone or seek
help, threatening severe consekuences if she
disobeyed. At first, Diloro struggled to comprehend the
situation, assuming that this was yet another false
accusation against her husband. However, after going
through a series of bureaucratic hurdles, she was
finally permitted to visit Muminov

—

only to find him in

a horrific state. It became painfully clear that this time
was different: after enduring days of brutal torture,

Muhammadjon Muminov had already “confessed” to

fabricated crimes and had been reduced to a living
corpse. Determined to fight back, Diloro took every
possible measure. She secretly sent a letter to Moscow
exposing the atrocities committed by the PCIA

(People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the Soviet

secret police and intelligence agency) in Uzbekistan.
She also met in secret with Davlat Rizaev, a former
friend of her husband, urging him to alert the Uzbek
authorities about the unlawful persecution of
Muminov. Unfortunately, by this time, all hope

—

both

from Moscow and from local authorities

—

had already

vanished.

Four months later, on July 4, 1937, Diloro was
dismissed from her position by Order No. 164 of the

Prosecutor of the Uzbek SSR, which stated: “D.

Yusupova, Assistant to the Prosecutor of the Uzbek SSR
for the Criminal Court Division, shall be relieved of her
duties and dismissed from service, as she is no longer

eligible to hold this position in the future”.

During the period of the Great Terror, Diloro did not
escape repression. She was accused of the following:

“As the wife of M. Muminov, a former official of the
People’s Commissar

iat of Justice of the Uzbek SSR, who

was arrested as a member of the right-Trotskyist-
nationalist counterrevolutionary organization and
declared an enemy of the people, she lived in the same

household with him and failed to report his
counterrevolutionary activities to the Soviet authorities.
Instead, she concealed his actions and assisted him.
Additionally, she was charged with secretly maintaining
written correspondence with the arrested Muminov

and Rizaev”.

As a result, on September 22, 1937, a search warrant
was issued for the residence of 26-year-old Diloro
Yusupova, who lived at 11 Uezdnaya Street, Tashkent.
Following the search, she was arrested and sent to

“Toshturma” (Tashkent prison). During the search,

authorities confiscated two books in Arabic script, a
passport (No. 099339), a collection of works by Larisa
Reisner published in 1929, a petition addressed to (PCIA
KP(b)

–

People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the

Communist Party (Bolsheviks)) officer Andreev written
by Magzumov Kudrat, as well as two applications and a
personal kuestionnaire belonging to Diloro Yusupova.

Later, during the interrogation process, two applications
and other material evidence, which were allegedly
supposed

to

confirm

Dilorus

secret

written

correspondence with her husband, were burned in a

bonfire based on a report approved by PCIA (People’s

Commissariat for Internal Affairs) officer Matveev on
October 10, 1937.

Her orphaned children

—

6-year-old son Marat Muminov

and 4-year-old daughter Surayyo Muminova

—

were

sent to an orphanage.

Despite enduring continuous physical torture and
humiliation during interrogations, Diloro Yusupova

firmly denied both her own and her husband’s guilt.

However, on October 4, 1938, Muhammadjon Muminov
was executed under the false accusation of being one of
the leaders of a demonstration in Moscow in 1927.

On October 28, 1937, Diloro Yusupova was formally
charged under Article 68 of the Criminal Code of the
Uzbek SSR. However, on March 14, 1939, upon review,
her case was dismissed due to the lack of criminal
evidence. Although the State Security Department of

the Uzbek SSR PCIA (People’s Commissariat for Internal

Affairs) issued a decision to terminate the case and
release her from detention, she was kept in custody for
five more days until March 19 without justification.
Upon her release from the Tashkent prison, she was
forced to sign a pledge of silence, forbidding her from
ever speaking about the torture and interrogations she
had endured.

When Diloro Yusupova returned home, she discovered
that her house had already been seized by an PCIA

(People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) officer

named Shutov. On May 23, 1939, she managed to
reclaim her home and bring her children back from the
orphanage. Accepting all that she had lost, Diloro

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The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology

devoted the rest of her life to simple jobs and raising
her children.

After her release, Diloro Yusupova took full
responsibility for her family, rejoined the party, and

was reinstated in the prosecutor’s office. In 1939, she

worked in arbitration, and during World War II, she
served as the chair of the commission responsible for
the social welfare of military personnel and war-
disabled families.

From 1939 to 1946, Diloro Yusupova held various

positions in the Tashkent City Prosecutor’s Office,

including Prosecutor for Police Oversight and Head of
the Juvenile Affairs Department. As an active member
of the Tashkent City Council, she gained public respect.

After Stalin’s death, during the early days of the “Thaw
Period”, Diloro Yusupova sent a letter to t

he Central

Authorities, rekuesting a re-eKhamination of her

husband M. Muminov’s case.

In April 1956, during a reinvestigation, Diloro Yusupova
stated:

“Muhammadjon and I met in Moscow. In 1929, after

arriving in Samarkand, he became a member of the
Collegium of the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan. That
same year, we got married, and in 1931, we moved to
Tashkent, where he became the director of a research
institute, which later evolved into a higher educational
institution for legal studies. Throughout our seven
years of marriage, I never once heard him say or saw

him do anything against the people’s interests. He was

always a pioneer of great initiatives. However, in
March 1937, he was arrested due to the malicious
intentions of Agabekov. Agabekov used intimidation to
eKhtract the information he wanted from anyone,
even persecuting people I associated with in an
attempt to implicate me. As a result, I was wrongfully
imprisoned from 1937 until April 1939, despite being

innocent.” On January 23, 1957, Muhammadjon

Muminov was posthumously rehabilitated by the
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
(Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). On February 22,
1958, upon receiving this long-awaited news, Diloro

Yusupova visited the CSS (Комитет Государственной
Безопасности –

Committee for State Security) office

and signed a written statement, declaring that she had
no material or moral claims against the Soviet state.

Diloro Yusupova worked for many years in the
Transport Prosecutor's Office and later served as an
honest legal expert in various institutions. Under her
guidance, her son, Marat Muhammedovich Muminov
(1930

–

1998), became a Doctor of Mathematical

Sciences, Professor, and made significant contributions
to the advancement of science in Uzbekistan. Her
beloved

daughter,

Surayyo

Muhammedovna

Muminova (1933

–

1954), tragically passed away in a car

accident just before completing her studies at the
Moscow Medical Institute. In conclusion, we hope that
many more works will be written about the honorable
yet tragic life of Muhammadjon Muminov and Diloro
Yusupova, the pioneers of modern Uzbek legal studies.

REFERENCES

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huquqshunosligining

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Muhammadjon Mo‘minov va Diloro Yusupovalarning
sharafli

va

fojiali

hayot

yo‘li

//

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Muhammadjon Mo‘min

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huquqshunosligi asoschisi.

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