The Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) announced the launch of an AI presenter named Sobira Kholdarova. She will present the latest news in nine languages ​​- Uzbek, English, Russian, French, Arabic, Chinese, German, Spanish and Kazakh.

Dildora Abdukhalilova has been chosen as the prototype for the presenter. The project was developed by We Digital Agency.

"It is no coincidence that the presenter was named after Sobira Kholdarova. She was the first woman - a professional journalist in Central Asia and Uzbekistan," the statement said.

Sobira Kholdarova was born in 1907 in the city of Chust in the Namangan province to a poor family. In 1923, she came to Tashkent and studied for two years at an educational institution for girls. Then she continued her studies at the All-Union Institute of Journalism in Moscow.

Returning to Tashkent, she worked in the editorial boards of several newspapers and magazines. In 1937, Sobira Kholdarova was accused of "losing class consciousness and connection with the intellectual revolutionary movement", after which she was convicted and sent to prison. On December 5, 1940, she was sentenced to 10 years in the camps and sent to Yakutia. Sobira Kholdarova's husband Mumin Usmanov was shot on October 4, 1938. After the court verdict and expulsion, her children Pulat and Manzura were transferred to an orphanage.

In 1955, she returned from prison. She died in 1984. Her son Pulat Usmanov was mobilized to the fronts of World War II and was wounded. Her daughter Manzura Usmanova holds PhD of physical and mathematical sciences.

“The assignment of the name Sobira Kholdarova to the presneter created is a tribute to the bright memory of the first Uzbek journalist who became a victim of repression,” UzA reported.