Call it sister power.
In a region where sons have routinely been groomed for succession in the upper echelons of power, there is a new trend in Central Asia: Daughters are emerging as significant political players.
The latest example of dynastic diplomacy to include female offspring came earlier this month when Turkmenistan's former president and holder of the title National Leader of the Turkmen People, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, traveled to Baku to meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Notably absent were sons of the leaders who are often paraded through the halls of diplomacy on such trips as a right of succession.
Conspicuously present at the occasion were Oguljahan Atabaeva, Berdymukhammedov's daughter, and Leyla Aliyeva, Aliyev's daughter. Just weeks earlier, Saida Mirziyoeva, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev, met with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on an official visit to Moscow while accompanying her father.
"It's not a coincidence," says Bruce Pannier, a senior analyst at US-based Turan Research Center at the Yorktown Institute, calling it "presidential daughters' diplomacy."
"These meetings are a manifestation of an emerging power paradigm for influential families in the region, constructing informal but potent avenues for diplomacy," he said. This paradigm, which emphasizes the role of family ties and personal relationships in shaping political decisions, is becoming increasingly prevalent in Central Asian politics, he added.
Berdymukhammedov held Turkmenistan in an iron grip for 15 years before relinquishing the presidency to his son, Serdar Berdymukhammedov, in 2022. While Serdar now nominally occupies the office, it is assumed by most analysts that his father still exerts tremendous influence behind the scenes as chairman of the parliament’s upper chamber Halk Maslahaty (People's Council).
Likewise, Aliyev assumed the presidency of Azerbaijan in 2003 upon the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev, a Soviet-era KGB general and Azerbaijan's longtime leader. Heydar Aliyev Jr. the only son and the youngest of Ilham Aliyev's three children at age 28, is widely seen as the country's next leader.
But the appearance of daughters on the international stage appear to show a deeper succession, with females being readied to take on powerful roles as well as autocratic leaders look to consolidate national power among their immediate family members.
Leyla Aliyeva, vice president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, has become a prominent figure in Azerbaijani public life, accompanying her father on official foreign trips and domestic engagements.
For Atabaeva, Baku was her second public outing on a state visit with her father. In April, she accompanied him to Uzbekistan, where they had dinner with Saida Mirziyoeva.
Her rise in visibility has been accompanied by a social media blitz in recent months. Turkmen-language pages on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, particularly those created by bloggers close to the government, have carried videos of her meetings and conferences.
Almaty-based rights defender Baqytzhan Toreghozhina says that in Central Asia's patriarchal societies, where women's rights often remain under siege, the lives of women in ruling families are a different story.
"Shielded from everyday struggles and propelled into roles of political significance, they navigate family intrigue, protocol duties, and at times, wield influence in systems designed to keep power within bloodlines," Toreghozhina said.
At official summits with other Central Asian leaders, Serdar Berdymukhammedov keeps a low profile, she said. "No bright speeches, no charisma, no eloquence."
In contrast, Atabaeva has appeared confident and composed in public, displaying a natural ease in front of cameras. Toreghozhina suggests her father may be promoting her visibility not only to strengthen family influence but also to pressure his son.
"I do not exclude that Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov is actively promoting his daughter to spur Serdar into action—to make him more assertive, to push him toward becoming a real leader," she said.
Kazakh journalist Vadim Boreiko observes a pattern across Central Asia, where authoritarian leaders employ what he terms a "unisex formula" to consolidate family dominance.
"In these systems, every family member, man or woman, plays their role to ensure power never leaves the family's grasp," Boreiko says, "This isn't about gender equality. It's about dynasty preservation."
He cites Kazakhstan as a cautionary tale for dynastic rulers.
Former President Nursultan Nazarbaev appeared to have secured his legacy in 2019 by transferring formal power to Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, widely viewed as his most loyal protégé. But when nationwide protests erupted in January 2022, Toqaev seized the moment to remove Nazarbaev and his family network from Kazakhstan's political scene.
"A part of the power got out of the family, and that was it," Boreiko said.
From late former Uzbek President Islam Karimov's daughter Gulnara Karimova, once tipped as her father's successor before her dramatic fall from grace, to Tajikistan's Ozoda Rahmon, currently a key figure in President Emomali Rahmon's administration, Central Asia's "first daughters" have long played roles that blur the lines between ceremonial and strategic.
They are at times deployed to soften their father's image on the international stage, lead charitable initiatives, or even manage key sectors of the economy. But these roles can also be traps, used to placate public demands for modernization while reinforcing patriarchal control.
"Women in these families aren't necessarily empowered in the way the West imagines. Their public presence often serves the family's survival strategy," Toreghozhina warns.
