A friend from abroad
Main sponsor and founder
Her belief is what made the Academy real.
It began as a conversation.
A few years ago, over tea in Samarkand, two people compared notes on the same problem. One was local: Abdu Samadov, a Samarkand-born tour manager and former English teacher who had spent twenty years watching the brightest young women of his city translate for foreign guests in the morning and go home to no prospects in the afternoon. The other was a friend from abroad who had seen what those same young women could do, and asked a simple question: what would it take?
The answer was not another lecture hall. It was a practical school, built by a local family, funded by a friend who believed in it, and answerable to the mothers of its students. Abdu’s mother, Safiya Samadova, gave the land on Segoh street. That friend became the Academy’s main sponsor. Partners from the travel world pledged the first year of teaching. Construction began in July 2026, and the doors open in March 2027.
We chose to build in Samarkand, and to serve the villages around it, on purpose. This is one of the great crossroads of human history, a city that has welcomed and taught the world for two thousand years. It seemed right that its daughters should be taught here too, rather than having to leave for a capital or a foreign country to find a future. We want the talent of this region to stay in this region, and to lift it.
The name
Our name belongs to a queen. Tumarys, whom the Greeks called Tomyris, ruled the Massagetae, the horse peoples of these steppes, some twenty-five centuries ago; when Cyrus the Great crossed the river to take her lands, she led her own army and stopped him. She is the region’s oldest answer to the question of what a woman can do. Beside her stands a friend from abroad, whose generosity is building the school and who would rather the school were the thing you remembered. A queen who defended these lands, and a friend who chose to invest in their daughters. Two women, one idea.
What we believe
We believe education should pay its way in a graduate’s life quickly and visibly. We believe a girl from a village is as capable as anyone she will ever serve. We believe money spent on travel and craft should reach the families who do the work, not disappear into distant margins. And we believe a school should be transparent, about its fees, its methods and its accounts, because a school that hides how it works has something to hide.
Vision
Young women from Samarkand and the surrounding villages leading with confidence, compassion and capability, lifting their families and communities, without having to leave home to do it.
Mission
To give young women the knowledge, skills and confidence to lead, earn and lift their communities, locally and globally, women-first, with young men welcome as allies.
Our seven values
- Integrity
- decisions made with honesty and courage.
- Respectful relationships
- dialogue that builds trust.
- Critical and creative thinking
- real problem-solving.
- Learn by doing
- real work, not being told.
- A spirit of inquiry
- learning how to learn, for life.
- Community leadership
- be the change around you.
- Environmental stewardship
- care for the world we hand on.
The people behind it
Abdu Samadov
Founder and Principal
A Samarkand-born educator and guide.
Safiya Samadova
Founder
She gave the land on Segoh street where the Academy now stands.
Around them, an advisory board of educators and business leaders from Samarkand, San Francisco and beyond guides the Academy’s growth.