Daughter of Uzbek leader’s fashion show canceled
The producers of New York’s Fashion Week have canceled a show scheduled for next week by the daughter of the president of Uzbekistan amid pressure from a human rights group and a planned protest over the use of child labor in her country.
“As a result of various concerns raised we have canceled the Guli show on September 15th,” IMG spokesman Zach Eichman said in an email Friday.
He did not elaborate on the reasons, but Human Rights Watch had been in contact with organizers for about a week, raising objections to the planned show by Gulnara Karimova because of what it calls widespread human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.
“The decision by New York Fashion Week to cancel a show by the daughter of Uzbekistan’s abusive ruler sends a message to the Uzbek government that its appalling human rights record is of global concern,” the group said in a statement Friday night.
Adding to the pressure on organizers, the Washington-based International Labor Rights Forum had called for a protest to coincide with the Sept. 15 show in the Fashion Week tents at Lincoln Center. While applauding Friday’s decision, the group still plans the rally as a more general protest against child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry.