Uzbekistan president's daughter distances herself from father Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, 35, Uzbekistan's permanent representative at Unesco in Paris, in an interview to the BBC Uzbek Service also said that she has not been in contact with her ambitious older sister, Gulnara, who is seen as a possible presidential successor, for 12 years. Turning to her father's policies, Lola said she shared the views that "unemployment and lack of opportunities breeds radicalisation of the population." President Karimov, who has ruled the former Soviet state for more than two decades, has been criticised for using the pretext of battling religious extremism to silence any dissent. "These two (unemployment and lack of opportunities) are the main source of the protest among the population, and are strongly linked with the extremism," Lola said. And I am confident they cannot be solved by using force. Asked why she took a French news site, Rue89, to a French court last year, Lola said that it hurts her when she is referred to only as a "dictator's daughter" in the media. "I know my name outpaces myself, but I want to be seen as a person with her own principles and viewpoint," she said.