Mutabar Tadjibaeva is an Uzbekistani human rights activist and independent journalist. In 2005, she was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison for denouncing the Uzbekistani government’s persecution of human rights defenders. She endured forced sterilization and torture by prison guards. After intensive pressure, she was freed in June 2008. Tadjibaeva is the founder and chairwoman of the Fiery Hearts Club, a human rights organization based in Ferghana, and is also a founder of the national movement Civil Society. In 2008, she received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, and the Fiery Hearts Club was awarded the French Republic’s “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” Prize. In 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted in Tadjibaeva’s favor; in 2012, she submitted a complaint accusing Uzbek authorities of arresting, raping, and torturing her between 2002 and 2009. She lives in exile in France.
