Tajik known poet Bozor Sobir has got to the hospital in the United States. He is currently undergoing treatment in the resuscitation department in one of hospitals in Seattle.
Bozor Sobir reportedly left for the United States recently to visit his children.
“Bozor Sobir has been feeling bad lately, and therefore he could come to Tajikistan for the Navrouz festival. I talked to him on the phone and he said that doctors have forbidden him any loads and long travels,” Nizom Qosim, the head of Tajik Writers’ Union, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Meanwhile, President Emomali Rahmon has ordered the Tajik Embassy in Washington and Tajikistan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations to visit Bozor Sobir and provide all necessary assistance to him.
Born on November 20, 1938, Bozor Sobir completed his studies in Tajik philology at Tajik National University in Dushanbe in 1962 and had worked for the magazines Maorif va Madaniyat (Education and Culture) and Sadoyi Sharq (Voice of the East). During the Soviet period his verse was widely translated into Western languages and even published in Iran.
With the advent of glasnost he became actively involved in the political and cultural movements for an independent national identity. Four major collections of his verse were published in the 2000s.
Bozor Sobir was also a prominent member of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan until his resignation from the party in November 1992, reportedly because of disagreement with the party leadership.
On March 26, 1993, Bozor Sobir was arrested at the Dushanbe airport, where he had gone reportedly to send a parcel to his son who was living that time in Moscow. On April 5, 1993, Bozor Sobir was charged with "incitement to illegal deprivation of freedom" and "attempting to inflame interethnic discord." He was released from jail in later 1993 due to support of international human rights organizations. After release from jail, Bozor Sobir in December 1994 left Tajikistan for the United States, where he resided for 19 years before he returned to Tajikistan in May 2013.
