Sheikh Hasina Wazed
(born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician and former Prime Minister, who served as Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001 and later from 2009 to 2024.She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder and first president of Bangladesh.
He served for more than twenty years collectively, he was the longest serving Prime Minister in the history of Bangladesh.
His 15 years of fascist and authoritarian rule came to an end by fleeing to neighboring India after he was ousted in the face of a student
uprising in 2024 and the Non-Cooperation Movement. Since 1981, he has been serving as the president of Bangladesh Awami League.
Bangladesh Awami League leader Hasina was defeated by Khaleda Zia in her first election in 1991.Then Hasina, as the leader of the opposition, accused Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of electoral fraud and boycotted parliament, leading to violent protests and political unrest in the country.Khaleda Zia then resigned to a caretaker government, after which Hasina was elected Prime Minister of the country for the first time in the June 1996 elections.
Although economic growth and poverty began to decline in Bangladesh thereafter, Hasina’s first term was marked by political turmoil, culminating in her electoral defeat to Khaleda in the July 2001 elections.This was the first full five-year term of a Prime Minister of Bangladesh after becoming an independent country.
During the political crisis of 2006–2008, Hasina was detained on charges of extortion. After his release from prison, he won the 2008 elections.He was re-elected for a third term in the 2014 election which was boycotted by the BNP and criticized by international observers.In 2017, after nearly a million Rohingya fled genocide in Myanmar and entered Bangladesh, Hasina received global credit and praise for providing them shelter and assistance. He won a fourth term after the 2018 election, which was marred by violence and widely criticized as corrupt. After the election in 2024, he became the Prime Minister for the fifth term.
His second term as prime minister (2009–2024), was criticized by economic mismanagement and widespread corruption, which led to rising external debt, rising inflation, youth unemployment and banking irregularities.An estimated US $ 150 billion or Tk 17.6 lakh crore has been smuggled out of Bangladesh through illegal means during this period. In 2022, anti-government protests began demanding Hasina’s resignation. In June 2024, fresh nationwide student protests began demanding quota reforms in government jobs. The protests were met with brutal repression by law enforcement agencies and paramilitary forces, resulting in the deaths of many students. In early August, these protests escalated into a full-fledged popular uprising against the government, ultimately forcing Hasina to resign and flee to India.