Sheikh Hasina Wazed (Bengali: শেখ হাসিনা ওয়াজেদ; born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who has served as the tenth Prime Minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001 and again since January 2009. She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and first president of Bangladesh. Having served for a combined total of over 19 years, she is the longest serving prime minister in the history of Bangladesh. As of 7 February 2024, she is the world's longest-serving female head of government.

As the autocratic regime of Hussain Muhammad Ershad came to an end, Hasina, leader of the Awami League (AL), lost the 1991 election to Khaleda Zia, with whom she had collaborated against Ershad. As leader of the opposition, Hasina accused Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of electoral dishonesty and boycotted the parliament, which was followed by violent demonstrations and political turmoil. Zia resigned to a caretaker government, followed by Hasina becoming prime minister after the June 1996 election. While the country began to experience economic growth and a reduction in poverty, it remained in political tumult during her first term, which ended in July 2001 after an electoral defeat from Zia. This was the first full five-year term for a Bangladeshi prime minister since it became an independent country.

During the 2006–2008 political crisis, Hasina was detained on extortion charges. After her release from jail, she won the 2008 election. In 2014, she was re-elected for a third term in an election that was boycotted by the BNP and criticised by international observers. In 2017, after nearly a million Rohingya entered the country, fleeing genocide in Myanmar, Hasina received credit and praise for giving them refuge and assistance. She won her fourth term after the 2018 election, which was marred with violence and widely criticised as being rigged.

Under her tenure as prime minister, Bangladesh has experienced democratic backsliding. Human Rights Watch documented widespread enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings under her government. Many politicians and journalists have been systematically and judicially punished for challenging her views. In 2021, Reporters Without Borders gave a negative assessment of Hasina's media policy for curbing press freedom in Bangladesh since 2014. Hasina was among Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2018,^] and among the 100 most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine in 2015, 2018, and 2022.

Early life

Hasina was born on 28 September 1947 to the Bengali Muslim Sheikh family of Tungipara in East Bengal. Her father was Bengali nationalist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and her mother was Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib. She has Iraqi Arab ancestry through both her paternal and maternal sides of family, her clan were direct descendants of Muslim preacher Sheikh Abdul Awal Darwish of Baghdad, who had arrived in Bengal in the Late Mughal Era. Hasina grew up in Tungipara during her early childhood under the care of her mother and grandmother. When the family moved to Dhaka, they initially lived in the neighborhood of Segunbagicha.

When her father became a government minister in 1954, they lived on 3 Minto Road. In the 1950s, her father also worked in the Alpha Insurance Company, aside from his political activities. In the 1960s, the family moved into a home built by her father on Road 32 in Dhanmondi. In many interviews and speeches, Hasina talked about growing up while her father was held as a political prisoner by the Pakistani government. In one interview, she remarked that "For instance, after the United Front Ministry was elected in 1954, and we were living in No 3 Minto Road, one day, my mother told us that father had been arrested the night before. Then we used to visit him in jail and we always realised that he was put in jail so often because he loved the people." Hasina and her siblings had very little time to spend with their father because of his preoccupation with politics.

Education and marriage

Sheikh Hasina attended primary school in her village of Tungipara. When her family moved to Dhaka, she attended the Azimpur Girls School. She enrolled for a bachelor's degree at Eden College. She was elected as the Vice President of the Students Union in Eden College between 1966 and 1967.^]In 1967, Hasina married M. A. Wazed Miah, who was a Bengali nuclear scientist with a doctorate in physics from Durham.^] Hasina studied Bengali literature at Dhaka University, from where she graduated in 1973. Hasina lived in Rokeya Hall, which was founded in 1938 as the women's dormitory of Dhaka University; and later named after feminist Begum Rokeya. She was involved in the politics of the Students League and was elected as the general secretary of the women's unit in Rokeya Hall.

Family murder, exile and return

Except for her husband, children and sister Sheikh Rehana, Hasina's entire family was murdered during the 15 August 1975 Bangladeshi coup d'état which saw the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Hasina, Wazed and Rehana were visiting Europe at the time of the assassination. They took refuge in the house of the Bangladeshi ambassador to West Germany; before taking up an offer of political asylum from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India. The surviving members of the family lived in exile in New Delhi, India for six years. Hasina was barred from entering Bangladesh by the military government of Ziaur Rahman. After she was elected President of the Awami League on 16 February 1981, Hasina returned home on 17 May 1981 and received a welcome from thousands of Awami League supporters.

 

Early political career

Movement against military rule (1981–1991)

While living in exile in India, Hasina was elected President of the Awami League (AL) in 1981. The AL has been described as a "left-of-center" party.

Under martial law, Hasina was in and out of detention throughout the 1980s. In 1984, she was put under house arrest in February and again in November. In March 1985, she was put under house arrest for another three months.

Hasina and the AL participated in the 1986 Bangladeshi general election held under President Hussain Muhammad Ershad. She served as the leader of the parliamentary opposition in 1986–1987. She led an eight-party alliance as opposition against Ershad.Hasina's decision to take part in the election had been criticised by her opponents, since the election was held under martial law, and the other main opposition group boycotted the poll. However, her supporters maintained that she used the platform effectively to challenge Ershad's rule. Ershad dissolved the parliament in December 1987 when Hasina and her Awami League resigned in an attempt to call for a fresh general election to be held under a neutral government. During November and December in 1987, a mass uprising happened in Dhaka and several people were killed, including Noor Hossain, an Awami League activist and support of Hasina.

Her party, along with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) under Khaleda Zia, continued to work to restore democratically elected government, which they achieved after a constitutional referendum returning the country to a parliamentary form of government.

The subsequent parliamentary general election in 1991 was won by the BNP.

Leader of the Opposition