Saida Mirziyoyeva, eldest daughter of Uzbekistan's president Shavkat Mirzioyoyev and the head of his presidential administration. Screenshot from BBC News Uzbek YouTube channel. Fair use. On August 25, Uzbekistan’s president Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree introducing personnel changes to his administration and appointed his daughter Saida Mirziyoyeva as the de-facto head of the president’s office. This became her second position after working there as the Head of the Communications and Information Policy Sector since last November. Mirziyoyeva’s new official title is Assistant to the President. However, the dismissal of the previous head of the presidential administration and removal of that position altogether make her the highest ranked official in the agency. Expectedly, this appointment birthed speculations whether Saida Mirziyoyeva will replace her father as the next president. Since entering the country’s political life in 2019, she has quickly risen through the ranks to one of the most powerful government positions in the country. Hers is not the first such story though. In fact, it is strikingly similar to that of Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the previous president Islam Karimov, who ruled over Uzbekistan from 1991 until his death in 2016. Karimova was an entrepreneur, diplomat, fashion designer, and singer. Until her downfall in 2013, when she was placed under house arrest, Karimova was the second most powerful person in the country. Similarly to Mirziyoyeva, some had predicted Karimova would succeed her father, but instead she ended up in prison for corruption. Uzbekistan is not alone in its extensive exercise of nepotism in Central Asia. Its regional neighbors, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, all provide examples of the president's close family members occupying high-level government posts. The most glaring example of this practice is the current president of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimukhamedov, who succeeded his father Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov in 2022. Here is a YouTube video about how Serdar Berdimuhamedov succeeded his father and became Turkmenistan's president. Despite nepotism’s adverse effects, as displayed during the 2005 Tulip and 2010 April revolutions in Kyrgyzstan, political leadership in Central Asia continues to prefer blood ties over meritocracy and professional qualifications as the deciding factor in matters of managing succession and ruling the country. Central Asian countries have a long history of nepotism. It has existed since the early days of their independence, which the regional countries acquired in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s disintegration in 1991. By the time the first presidents of Central Asian countries came to office and strengthened their positions in the late 1990s and early 2000s, their children had grown up enough to launch their own political careers. They also started creating their own families, creating a need to co-opt new members of the family, the in-laws. The cases of Saida Mirzoyeva, Gulnara Karimova, and Serdar Berdimuhamedov are just a few examples. Kazakhstan’s first president Nursultan Nazarbayev was among the first to lead his family members to high-level posts. His 29-year long rule left a vivid trail of nepotism. Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, became a member of parliament in 2004, the deputy prime minister in 2015, and speaker of the senate in 2019. Her husband Rakhat Aliyev, a medical doctor by training, occupied the post of the deputy minister of foreign affairs before being exiled to Europe, where he eventually died in 2015 under suspicious circumstances. Nazarbayev’s two other daughters and their husbands were among the top business moguls during his reign. Here is a YouTube video about the wealth of Nazarbayev's family members. Kyrgyzstan’s first president Askar Akayev also reverted to nepotism during his rule, despite the hopes that he, as a trained physicist, would be an impartial figure. His scientific background and absence of political past were a deciding factor when Kyrgyzstan’s parliament elected him as the country’s first president in 1990. Mairam Akayeva, his wife, emerged as the powerful shadow figure who granted access to the country’s market and resources to businesses and investors in exchange for hefty bribes. In 2005, his son and daughter ran in the parliamentary elections and won seats, angering the public and leading to the Tulip Revolution, which ended Akayev’s reign. Kyrgyzstan’s next president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, made the same mistake by appointing his son and brothers to key government posts. His presidency ended in 2010 in what came to be called the April Revolution.