Are you a feminist?

As a teenager, I was already an advocate for gender equality and tried to communicate this concept to my peers in youth centers and in everyday life. However, feminism remained something unknown to me, and I doubted whether I was its representative or not. However, the more I studied feminist theory, the more I realized that there is nothing wrong with feminism. In fact, feminism and equality are synonymous. If I want the rights of my mother, sister, niece, friends, and future wife and children to be respected, their voices to be heard and their potential to be fully developed, there must be more feminists and enthusiasts in the world who promote gender equality. Therefore, I am a proud to be a feminist and I am ready to do everything possible to bring us closer to a world where everyone is equal.

Who is your role model?

Before, famous people, people from covers and social networks used to be my role models, but they didn’t motivate me enough until I realized that it was much more effective for me to exemplify “live” people with whom I had opportunity to meet, work, and exchange energies. And most likely due to the fact that I would like to proceed my career in international relations, I am motivated by outstanding people working in the international arena.

One example of such role model for me is UNFPA specialist Ene Tuylieva and former UNESCO employee and now independent expert Arina Myasoed. They may not even suspect, but with every action, advice, publication on social networks, or even an email, they have an incredible impact on my life and provide a new portion of motivation to achieve deliberate goals. Each of them is distinguished by its unique success story, a huge range of activities, projects, and energy.

Ene has created the first inclusive youth platform Yashlyk! where young people of our country can find accurate information about their health, as well as approach it with more responsibility, have healthy relationships and develop their potential. Arina is the author of the Central Asian youth space CAYSPACE, aimed at providing innovative training courses on the most relevant agendas of our realities.

I hope one day in the future I also will be a founder of some similar platforms that will help to build a culture of respect through our diversity.

Have you ever envied people?

Undoubtedly! I won't believe if anyone says they didn't have that experience, as it's normal to feel envious. I experienced "white envy" (health competition), for example, in relation to those who managed to travel often. While people mark on the map the countries they have visited, I keep a map of the countries that I was supposed to fly to for conferences, internships or seminars, but could not visit for various reasons. However, lately, when I meet more experienced and successful people, I do not feel envy at all, but rather see it as an opportunity to build partnerships for future collaborations and mutual exchange of experience and ideas.

Do you want to be famous?

I do not mind. I am aware that with popularity comes great responsibility and the opportunity to pass a message to a wider audience, at the same time, I think that it is quite normal to want to be famous or to be recognized by people and I believe that one day I will be famous. My aspirations to work in international organizations, to represent youth, my region and country are very clear, and it becomes obvious that in the process of all these interactions with people, I will have the chance not only to meet new people, but also to speak on behalf of some international organizations. Perhaps one day, in the future, I will be the first UN Secretary General from Turkmenistan and Central Asia. Everything is possible!