Islom Abdug‘aniyevich Karimov (Cyrillic Uzbek: Ислом Абдуғаниевич Каримов; Russian: Ислам Абдуганиевич Каримов Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov) (born on January 30, 1938) has served as the President of Uzbekistan since 1991.

Karimov was born in an orphanage in Samarkand, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union, growing up to study economics and engineering at university.

Karimov became an official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, becoming the party's First Secretary in Uzbekistan in 1989. On March 24, 1990 he became President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. He declared Uzbekistan an independent nation on August 31, 1991. He won Uzbekistan's first presidential election on December 29 with 86% of the vote. The elections were called unfair, with state-run propaganda and a falsified vote count, although the opposing candidate and leader of the Erk (Freedom) Party, Muhammad Salih, had a chance to participate.