A joint investigative report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Azda TV found that Iqbolkhon Nozirova, the wife of Tajikistan’s Prime Minister Qohir Rasulzoda, has bought several multimillion-dollar luxury homes in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The source of this vast property, which appears suspicious, prompted journalists to uncover the truth.
FULL TRANSLATION OF THE ARTICLE
Tajikistan’s prime minister and his wife did not respond to journalists’ questions about how Nozirova was able to acquire real estate in Tajikistan and the United Arab Emirates.
The prime minister’s wife has no known income, and her husband is not permitted to engage in business activities. Nevertheless, Iqbolkhon Nozirova owns several homes in Tajikistan and has also purchased luxury villas in Dubai worth about $1.4 million.
As in other authoritarian countries of Central Asia, the source of this couple’s wealth is unknown. In Tajikistan—a country whose president, Emomali Rahmon, has spent the past three decades suppressing critics and preserving his power—there are no independent media.
However, OCCRP and Azda TV, a Tajik outlet abroad, were able to obtain documents indicating that Nozirova owns four apartments and a hotel in Sughd Region, where her husband previously served as governor. She also owns a home in Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital.
According to the leaked information, Nozirova also owns two villas (luxury houses) in Dubai, one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates.
There is no information that Nozirova has held a high-paying job or owned a highly profitable company. Qohir Rasulzoda has been a state official for 24 years and, under Tajik law, is not allowed to engage in business.
Edward Lemon, president of the Oxus Society, a Washington-based analytical center that monitors and focuses on Central Asian affairs, says: “Even as prime minister, Rasulzoda receives only a modest official salary.” According to him, while the post of prime minister in this country is “largely symbolic,” it appears that Rasulzoda and his wife have good ties to a “kleptocratic” regime.
“He (Rasulzoda) has diverse experience in government positions. It also seems that he did not have many personal ambitions in advancing within Tajikistan’s authoritarian political system. Therefore, I think, for these reasons he was chosen as prime minister,” Lemon says.
There is no evidence linking Rasulzoda or Nozirova to incidents of financial corruption. They themselves did not respond to journalists’ questions about the sources of their wealth and property.
FROM THE SILK ROAD TO THE PERSIAN GULF
Nozirova’s hotel in ancient Khujand, the center of Sughd Region in northern Tajikistan—which once shipped goods to Europe via the Silk Road—offers rooms to guests for short- and long-term stays. Today, Khujand is the second-largest city in a country that, according to the World Bank, is considered the poorest in Central Asia.
Khujand was founded about 2,500 years ago during the Persian Empire. In Dubai’s sands, meanwhile, inaccessible gated communities and skyscrapers have risen over the past few decades. Nozirova has established herself in both places.
Leaked real-estate data published as part of the Dubai Unlocked project shows that Nozirova bought two luxury villas in Mira Oasis III, an inaccessible gated community in Dubai, located just 200 meters from each other. The community has an amphitheater, a dog park, swimming pools, and a volleyball court.
One of the luxury villas owned by the wife of Tajikistan’s prime minister is valued at about $738,000, and the second at around $700,000. The purchase documents list Nozirova’s daughter’s phone number as the contact.
According to the leaked information, Nozirova’s daughter, Farangis Azimova, also owns real estate in Dubai. In 2011, she bought a luxury villa in the “Meadows” neighborhood, now worth about $5.4 million. When she bought the villa, she was only 24. Azimova is said to be a fashion designer and the wife of businessman Zafar Azimov, the son of Yahyo Azimov, Tajikistan’s former prime minister. Zafar Azimov owns a private company that invests in manufacturing, real estate, and healthcare in Russia, Tajikistan, and the United States.
They appear to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle. Photos she posted on Instagram show that they frequently travel to various countries, including France, Austria, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic. They did not respond to journalists’ requests for comment.
Photo: Internet“The least corrupt Tajik minister“
Although Azimova may have benefited from her husband’s businesses, there is no evidence to substantiate her mother’s substantial wealth.
Nozirova is not registered as an entrepreneur with Tajikistan’s Tax Committee, even though registration is required to run even the smallest business in the country. According to the Unified Register of Legal Entities, she did not own any company until 2018. Nozirova worked for a time as the director of a cultural palace in Khujand, but it is unclear when she engaged in business.
There is no media coverage about Nozirova because, as Human Rights Watch reports, Tajikistan continues its “crackdown on independent and critical voices.” However, a government employee who worked as a press officer when Rasulzoda was governor of Sughd posted a photo of the prime minister and his wife on his personal page.
In the article, which he republished in 2020, he wrote about a trip by Rasulzoda and his wife to one of Sughd Region’s agricultural districts to help farmers. “I truly did not think the governor’s wife would come to pick cotton and amaze everyone with her own harvest. She picked cotton like a machine,” he recounted, quoting the head of the farm.
Rasulzoda’s work history shows that before entering politics, he worked as an ordinary worker until 2000 and was employed at a state enterprise in construction and engineering. In 2000, he was appointed Minister of Land Reclamation and Water Resources.
As the former press office employee wrote, Rasulzoda gained fame as the “least corrupt Tajik minister.” Describing Rasulzoda’s family, he says that Rasulzoda married his “first love, Iqboloy,” and they had three children.
“Alongside being a kind woman and an exceptional homemaker, Iqboloy has a refined sense of aesthetics,” the article says.
Eldiyor Arikboev (OCCRP), Firuz Mahmadali (Azda TV), Muhammadjon Kabirov (Azda TV)