Djalilova Khurshida Mirkholikovna

The Babel Prize for Literature’s official gown, worn during the award presentation ceremony by the delegate delivering the prize, was designed by Djalilova Khurshida Mirkholikovna, PhD, and gifted by the designer.

Created with the prize’s spirit in mind, the gown is a traditional Uzbek robe, sewn from fine black fabric and richly ornamented with gold embroidery. Both sides of the robe’s sleeves feature the prize’s logo, a depiction of the Tower of Babel inscribed in a portal embellished with the prize’s name.

Khurshida presented the gown to Babel Prize representative Dr. Gjeke Marinaj at her Tashkent home during his May 2022 official visit to the Mirzo Ulugbek National University of Uzbekistan.

With the Babel Prize committee’s approval, the robe became the prize’s official gown in December 2022. It was used for the first time on December 4, 2022, during the award presentation ceremony in Tirana, Albania.

A specialist in literary relations, comparative literature and translation studies, Khurshida teaches at the National University of Uzbekistan, where she also chairs the Department of the Faculty of Foreign Philology. She holds a PhD in philology from the university’s Department of Foreign Literature.

She organizes the conference “Issues of Philology in the Interpretation of Youth” and presents at national and international scholarly conferences.

The author of more than seventy scholarly articles, as well as six teaching aids and monographs, Khurshida lectures and teaches on subjects such as English-language and world literature, literary theory and research fundamentals.

Khurshida is a member of “Olima,” Uzbekistan’s association for women scholars.

Eqerem Gaxholli, during the award presentation ceremony in Tirana, Albania.