Zulfiya: life and work

Zulfiya Isroilova was born in 1915 in the ancient Dergez neighbourhood of Tashkent. She studied at primary school and a women’s college, and in 1935–1938 at the postgraduate programme of the Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Language and Literature. In 1953–1980 she was editor-in-chief of the magazine “Saodat”. Her first poems were published in 1932 as “Hayot varaqlari”; later dozens of collections followed such as “Qizlar qo‘shig‘i” (1938), “Hijron kunlarida” (1944), “Dalada bir kun” (1948), “Yuragimga yaqin kishilar” (1958), “Shalola” (1974). Her husband, the poet Hamid Olimjon, died in a car accident in 1944 aged 34. Zulfiya stayed faithful to him all her life and continued his work: she wrote plays and librettos based on his dostons, created the poems “Quyoshli qalam”, “Mushoira” and “Xotira siniqlari”, and translated poems by Russian, Ukrainian, Azerbaijani and Indian women poets. She was People’s Poetess of Uzbekistan and received the international “Nilufar”, Jawaharlal Nehru and State prizes. She died in 1996 aged 81. The State prize named after her is awarded to talented girls.