“I will voluntarily go to pick cotton”

A distinctive feature of the cotton season in 2017 is the full-scale requirement for written confirmation of “voluntary participation in the collection of cotton” from employees of government institutions.

According to several workers from different regions of Uzbekistan, they were asked to write statements in which they “confirmed that they are going to collect cotton voluntarily”, prior to being sent to the cotton fields.

In some cases, employees allegedly made a collective decision at meetings , where they took the initiative to participate in the cotton harvest to help the country before the rains begin.

To the Head of the Department of School No. 39 of Bukhara district Nematov Ilhom from the uzbek language and literature teacher Saidova Dilbar.

Statement

I, Saidova Dilbar, guarantee to collect cotton, grown in 2017, in good faith, efficiently and without loss.

August 11, 2017

Saidova Dilbar

The question however remains: Why would a volunteer write such a statement? For whom and for what are they intended?

Artist: Tuz