A few months ago I heard Nadira Alieva on Midweek with Liby Purves.
She was a great guest on the show, a very colourful woman: a sexy dancer as the partner of the maverick British ambasador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray, I can't remember exactly what he got in trouble for, but he definitely didn't toe the UK government line.. I always admire someone who stands up for the small people against the mega-powers of national government, corporations or organised religions. The tone of her life story was turned for radio 4 first thing in morning, she was still a great guest but perhaps some of the more exotic and shocking parts of her life were glossed over (the Newsnight interview on youtube is more provocative and brutal)
Apparently Nadira meet the British ambassador when he came to Tashkent club to see the exotic dancer, it sounds romantic, glamourous and exciting.
For a recent blog piece, on entertaining consultants using corporate accounts to pay for lap-dancing, I stmbled on interesting article on Nadira in the Telegraph. While I love radio, when it comes to stripetease, it is a challenging medium, an I would have to say in the rather modest but provocative photos in the Telegraph, she looks great!
Nadira has wonderfully soft and musical voice and spoke with some poigancy of the world of striptease:
There was no appreciation of my body as a whole, no enjoyment of my dancing as there would have been in my native Uzbekistan, where at least I got to keep my bra and knickers on.
Clearly adjusting to life in the hard west has not been simple:
The backstage area at Spearmint Rhino was huge and well lit with mirrors everywhere and the experienced girls mingled with the new.
When I mentioned that I'd never done nudity before, they said it was no big deal.
There is a hierarchy at these clubs and sometimes you don't get the chance to dance on the bar or main stage, you just walk the floor in search of a punter.
Still she sounded resoluted and overall quite positive about her new life.
The Telegraph article also discusses her new stand-up routine:
Nadira's move to London has been traumatic but she is using her experience as the basis of a one-woman show
"Your father is taking drugs," she admitted sadly.
I soon saw the horrible evidence for myself.
I walked into our kitchen to find my father tying a tourniquet around his upper arm and gripping his fist to find a vein in which to inject his heroin fix - known as "poppy milk" in our culture.
My mother screamed: "Not in front of the children, don't do it in front of the children."
But he just shouted back: "I am their father - I can do what I want because they love me and if they stop loving me, they won't cry when I'm dead."
It may sound strange but at times I almost liked my father when he was high because he was back to his old happy and loving self.
The title of The British Ambassador's Belly Dancer is ironic - the purpose of the play is to tell Nadira Murray's story and make crystal clear that she is much more than somebody's spouse. She does not see herself as a victim, but as a survivor and an achiever. In parts extremely moving, throughout Nadira Murray makes plain that these experiences - including multiple acts of sexual abuse by the police - are common experiences of her contemporaries. But the pathos is continually pierced by flashes of wit and a determination to find joy in the most trying of circumstances. Craig Murray does not appear in the narrative until the final third of the play, and any expectation that this play would be primarily about him is dashed by Nadira's initial assessment "I wondered who is this old foreigner - does he have any money?"
Craig comes across s a good fun and has apparently a strong taste for kinky spanking - good on him to be open and honest about what makes him happy! Even if he did obviously blush during the Newsnight interview ;-)
NB Apparently Craig got into trouble for refusing to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.. a man of principles.
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