Saida Mirziyoeva will run the communication and information policy department, according to Mirziyoev’s press secretary.
She will monitor social reforms in Uzbekistan as part of the continuing efforts of her father, now in his second term, to promote an image of himself as a reformer in the most populous country in Central Asia.
Mirziyoeva is not new to the presidential administration. In 2019-2020, she served as a deputy head of the Agency of Information and Communications of Uzbekistan, a separate entity also under the aegis of the administration.
She is not the only member of the president's family working for the government. Her sister Shakhnoza is the head of the policy department at the Ministry of Preschool Education. Both women’s husbands have previously worked at the presidential administration and in the president’s security service.
Mirziyoev only follows the tradition of Central Asian nepotism.
Uzbekistan’s first president Islam Karimov made his eldest daughter Gulnara Karimova one of the country’s most important diplomats, appointing her variously as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and ambassador to Spain and the UN.
Karimova is best known for the biggest corruption scandal in the history of Central Asia when OCCRP proved that Karimova received some $1 billion worth of shares and payments from mobile companies in exchange for her influence. She has been serving a prison sentence since 2015.
The long-time ruler of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev used his power to appoint several of his relatives to different government positions. His eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva was Speaker of the Senate, Vice Prime Minister and Vice Speaker of the Mazhilis (lower chamber of Parliament), while his grandson Nurali Aliyev was once deputy mayor of Astana, the country’s capital. The same post was earlier held by Nazarbayev's nephew Kairat Satybaldy. Another nephew Samat Abish served as First Deputy Head of the Committee of National Security.
All of Nazarbayev's relatives lost their positions this January following protests in Kazakhstan when thousands of people went to the streets chanting “Shal, ket!” (Old man, go!), addressed to Nazarbayev, who formally resigned the presidency in March 2019 but continued to wield significant power as chairman of the security council and the ruling party.
Turkmenistan this March elected new President Serdar Berdymukhamedov, the son of his predecessor Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Experts expect something similar to happen in Tajikistan where long-time ruler Emomali Rakhmon seems poised to bequeath the presidency to his son Rustam Emomali, currently the mayor of the capital Dushanbe.
The Tajik president has nine children and three of them are public servants now.
