Episode Transcript
Hello, my name is Aziz, and I'm the son of a divorced mother. She is my superhero. That's
why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities,
perspectives, and emotions about this world. In these difficult times in human history,
we need to bring the cultures of the world together. And when we listen to real people,
to real lives of women from other countries, we connect our humanity without our differences
or stereotypes, and we get inspired by their stories to live a better life. That's what this
podcast is all about. My guest today is Mohinur Amonulloyeva. Mohinur was born in Tajikistan and
currently studying finance at Kyemap University in Kazakhstan. Mohinur likes playing basketball
and writing poems. And while being at high school, she was accepted to three international
exchange programs. One, the Cyprus International University summer exchange program in 2017.
Two, Global Encounters winter exchange program in Kenya-Mobasa 2019. And three, the Ayakoca
International University summer exchange program 2020. Mohinur, how are you today?
Hi, thank you for giving a short introduction about me. So I'm feeling good, and I'm really
happy to be here with you. And I would like to say thank you for giving me the opportunity of
being interviewed in today's interview. I'm feeling really happy and I'm doing well.
I'm honored. I'm privileged to have you here and very curious about you. So I'll begin with
this nice question. If your friends could describe your personality, what would they say about you?
I guess my friends would describe me as a supportive person. Whenever something
goes wrong, I guess I'm always the first volunteer to help them. And it does not matter,
do I have time? Do I have my own problems? I always take care of my friends and even
my relatives. I mean, the people who are close to me. And the first thing they may say that
I'm really supportive. The next thing that they will say, maybe I'm too responsible for things
that I do, I guess. And finally, if I would be instead of my friends, and I guess they would say
that I'm too friendly, because it's really easy for me to deal with people. It does not matter
where they are from, what tradition they have, what culture they have, and what religion they
are from. That's fantastic. I'm really, really happy that you have this ability. And a lot of
people, especially after the pandemic, seem to have lost their social skills. They became
more socially awkward. So if you could teach someone to be like you, to have ease and capacity
to make new friends, to deal with people from any culture or background, what would you say?
How do you do it? What kind of conversations do you have? What do you look for? How do you
find commonalities? And how do you build that new relationship? I really like the question because
it really matters nowadays. So many, I mean, so many students, not just students, but
in general, people are having problems because maybe they are shy of getting into people.
They are shy to get new friends. They are shy to take the first step. But I think that this is not
correct because whenever you take the first step to do something, it means you are enough strong
to continue the things that you are going to do. And if I would have an opportunity to teach anyone,
like my peers or someone else, I would tell them to be themselves, to not pretend someone else,
to not introduce the person that they are not, to introduce themselves, to be honest with people,
and to understand different cultures and traditions. As I'm from Tajikistan, it really
differs. My country traditions really differs from the one, like the countries that I have
been visited during my 18 years. I have been traveling to more than eight countries.
And it was quite easy for me because in my family, we had such, like my mom and dad taught me to be
open-minded. Whenever I see someone acting otherwise, it does not mean that this is wrong.
I should be open-minded and I should understand that if it's wrong for me, it does not mean that
it's wrong for them as well. Maybe it's their point of view and it may be correct for them.
So I have to look at this situation from the other angle. I mean, the opposite side of myself,
like I have to go opposite my own opinion and to look at this situation from the other side.
As an example, I had carrying my own project, volunteering project called The Changemakers in
my hometown. I was conducting sessions on how to apply to exchange programs for my peers and for
students smaller than me. And the thing that I was mainly focusing on is to motivate them to not be
afraid of taking risks because if students are not taking risks and they are not trying to achieve
something, they would not achieve because if they are not taking risks, if they are not putting
themselves outside of their comfort zone, that's not a good way to achieve something.
I agree 100%. And since you have been exposed to so many cultures in the world,
I'm curious about Tajikistan. First, does it encourage young people to take risks like you
mentioned and to go out of their comfort zone? And secondly, how do you describe a young girl
from Tajikistan who is your age? If someone would make such a friend, what would be her mentality,
her personality, the way she is that is different from other cultures?
Sure. First of all, I guess all the Tajikistan really supports the young women and generally
the female. The government and the male gender of Tajikistan, they are really supportive.
They fully give availability to their sisters, mothers, daughters to get as much qualification
as it is possible. They let them to go out of their own country, to go abroad, to get
known with other people, to broaden their worldview. And this is really good because
as I have realized, but growing up, I saw that many countries are struggling with this
because they are having difficulties with the male gender. They are not letting them
to go out of houses. They have lack of education and such things like that.
So Tajikistan is really rich in this sphere. I hope you understood what I mean by saying
rich. And the second case is that for sure, it depends on what individual is that person,
I mean that girl. But I'm sure that if a Tajik girl go abroad, first of all, everyone would see
a very, very friendly girl who is really respective because respecting others, it is really important
in my country. And other, what can I say that, she is really friendly, she's educated, and
she might always be supportive because people in Tajikistan, they are always trying to put
themselves out of their comfort zone and help people to get something, like to make something
to make something better in their lives. So if someone abroad needs a Tajik girl's help,
even if, for example, if someone asked her for money, but she has like, for example,
at least $10, I'm more than sure that she will give that $10 to that person because
that person really needs that. Thank you. That sounds so generous, so kind,
so respectful, and it's not unexpected from such a deep and rich culture that you have.
And for you, can you tell me how was that decision to choose to study finance
at your university? Why did you choose KeyMap specifically? How was that thought process?
Have that decision, tell me everything. Oh, wow. This process was the most difficult
stage of my life, I guess, because it was too hard to take that step because by having that,
when you decided what you have to do, you understand that this is going to be your future,
and this was really hard. Why I chose finance is that when I was a kid, my dad is an entrepreneur,
and as I was a kid, I have realized that he always have difficulties because he has his own company
and the finance fear of that company is always in trouble because they have some problems with their
papers, they are not too responsible. And even from when I was at the age of five,
I always told my dad that I will grow up and I will help you, that I will grow up and I will
do my best to be best finance assistance at your company. So I didn't change my mind
even when I grew up. I realized that it is really important, not just for helping my dad,
but it's really important nowadays. I mean, the measure of finance, because it does not just teach
you to calculate something. It teaches you to spend your money daily. For example, it teaches you how
to not just waste your money on things that you do not need and to save some money for more urgent
situations. Also, why I chose K-MAP is that it was fully free for me to study here. I got the grant,
100% grant of K-MAP, and plus I got the scholarship, which pays for my dormitory,
for my education here. And for sure, I chose this university because I wanted that my dad and my mom
should just, they have to take a rest. They should not work really hard to pay a gain for my studies
because they paid enough while I was in my high school. I just wanted to make life for them easy.
And another reason is that K-MAP is a really, really good university, especially in business
sphere, like in all Central Asian countries. It's the best university. And many students who have
graduated from K-MAP university are now working at really good companies and having really good
salaries, having good lives. And this is important for my future. So this, I guess, this is the
answer. If any questions, like if something was not understandable.
Thank you. It is absolutely clear. And since you have met people all over the world and from all
from all over the world, what do you look for in those that you make your close friends and
develop lifelong relationships with? Are you looking for people who are open-minded like you,
who are accepting and tolerant of all backgrounds? Are you looking for people who are more similar
to your culture, full of generosity and help, or people who have that fire in their eyes because
they have passionate projects and they're changing the world? Or they're just kind people who are
good listeners? Or what for you are the most important characteristics when you meet someone
and think, yes, I want this person in my life? I guess the most important thing that I have
learned since like I was a kid and now like through all my 19 years is that it is really
important to have a honest person next to you. Because if the person is not enough honest,
it's difficult because you may just get broken one day and you may just ask yourself, oh my god,
I have been talking with this person for a long time and I have even didn't got the full picture
of what kind of person it is because this is really difficult. And for now, for being honest,
previous years it was not that like I was not looking for a specific characteristic in a person.
It just does not matter for me what kind of person it is because I really like I find it
really easy to deal with people. And I got friends like with different characteristics,
some were like close-minded, some were open-minded, some were really shy, some were like
really tolerant, smart. Maybe some of them were just not going even out of their homes.
It does not matter for me because from all of those people I have learned something. But this
year maybe I have changed my community, I became more like mature and I understood that whenever
I want to be a person next to me, the first thing that I should look for is that that person is
honest with me. This person 100% believes me, trusts in me, will not after two or three years
or 10 years just leave me, I mean even friends, just leave me and say, oh she was bad, oh she was
something with that. Because I'm a person who really like who quickly trusts people and it's
difficult when you have this honest person around you, I mean tons of people around you.
So I guess this is the only main characteristic that from now I am searching in people.
I agree that's so important. I wish you a lot of honest people in your life and
I value that you can see the sincerity and you appreciate this as a core trait of your
friendships. And to finish this, do you have any words to say or advice or inspiration or
recommendation to other girls from your country and from all over the world that we can end this
episode with? Any lessons about life you have learned or things that motivate you or things
that you remember often so that you add them to your life that you feel are important to share?
I would like again to appreciate you for giving me this opportunity to share such important thing
with others and I would like to tell every girl, it does not matter, she's five years old, 10 years
old, 20, she's a mother or she's a sister, it does not matter. We must always know that there are no
limits in our lives and we must always take risks to take pleasure of those achievements that we are
going to have. If we want to change the world, we should change ourselves first. We should trust in
ourselves. If we do not trust in ourselves, no one will trust in ourselves. So we should not care of
why people are not helping us, why they are not near to us because no one cares. No one cares
how you fail, what you do, did you lose, did you win. You are the person responsible for your life.
So get that responsibility and make your life as glowsome and perfect as it is possible.
Thank you so much Mohinur. This was my privilege, my honor, such a wonderful conversation and a
great way to share your experiences, your wisdom and lessons and about your culture and I wish you
success in every way. Thank you again for participating. Thank you so much again and
wish you best of luck. Such an amazing podcast.
