A Quiet Strength: Feruza's Journey from Information Gaps to Shared Rights
Feruza Badrutdinova lives in Bukhara. Family, honest work, and her children’s future are at the heart of her life, and as a deaf person, she has pursued her goals with quiet determination.
She has loved baking since childhood, and today that passion is her job: she bakes healthy cookies at a local café.
“When customers discover who prepared the healthy cookies, their first reaction is often surprise,” says Feruza.
Since 2018, she has also worked as a cleaner at the Educational and Production Enterprise under the Uzbek Society of the Deaf, a job that gives her independence and pride in contributing to her community.
"For people like us, there are no boundaries. There are opportunities," she says.
EU-funded project
But living a quiet life may come with invisible barriers. From visiting a doctor and opening a bank account to accessing public services, many interactions rely on information communicated through speech and explanation.
For people with hearing impairments, navigating a world built largely on spoken rules can be challenging, making it harder to understand how public services should work, what rights citizens have, and where official procedures end and improper practices begin. As a result, a parent may assume a payment requested for kindergarten enrollment is required, or a delayed pension payment may raise fears of unfair treatment. Awareness of one's rights is therefore essential not only for accessing services, but also for recognizing and preventing corruption.
For Feruza, that understanding came gradually. In December 2024, she joined legal literacy workshops on anti-corruption organized by the local Society of the Deaf, where she is an active member. With sign language interpretation and discussions with government representatives, the sessions turned complex laws into clear, accessible knowledge.
EU-funded project
"After learning that both taking and giving bribes are punishable by law, I started sharing this information with others. Like me, they may not realize that they should not have to pay for services that are meant to be free."
Feruza feels more confident and less afraid. She shares what she has learned with friends and neighbors, helping them avoid unnecessary or unlawful payments.
Equal rights require equal access to information. That is the reality Feruza's story points to.
"For many of us, this was the first time these issues had been explained in a way we could fully understand. Because we are deaf, reliable information might not always reach us. Through these sessions and the interactive website, we learned about our rights, how corruption affects society, how to prevent it, and the consequences it carries."
EU-funded project
The workshops were part of an initiative by the Bukhara Regional Branch of the Uzbek Society of the Deaf, supported by the EU-funded project “Strengthening the National Anti-Corruption Ecosystem in Uzbekistan,” implemented by the Anti-Corruption Agency and UNDP. Around 100 members of the deaf community strengthened their legal awareness, and media campaigns reached more than 5,000 people. With the support of the project, the Bukhara Regional Branch of the Uzbek Society of the Deaf also launched Uzbekistan’s first inclusive online anti-corruption platform, with sign-language legal terminology and video lessons: https://s-access.site/en/.
EU-funded project
Today, Feruza continues baking cookies, raising her children, and sharing what she has learned with others in the deaf community. The difference is that she now does so with the confidence that her rights belong to her as much as anyone else's.
"What matters most to me is that my family is happy and follows the rightful path”