At the age of 31, her entrepreneurial journey already featured experiences that take decades for many, from settling in the Silicon Valley and rapidly growing Grabr to fighting for survival of the business during the pandemic.

Today, no more than 5,000 people live in the town. Lack of work is the main problem. The coal mines are abandoned. The local population hopes to preserve the town and villages. Not by the reanimation of industry, but with tourism.

Nestled between the Pamir and Alay Mountains ranges, the landlocked country of Tajikistan has garnered little attention in the Western press since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.