1. Sheikh Hasina was born on 28 September 1947 and is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024.
94 Facts About Sheikh Hasina
1. 2.
Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh.
3.
Sheikh Hasina served in the position of prime minister for over 20 years, making her the longest-serving prime minister in history of Bangladesh.
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Khaleda Zia resigned in favour of a caretaker government, followed by Sheikh Hasina becoming prime minister after the June 1996 election.
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The term ended in July 2001, with Sheikh Hasina being succeeded by Khaleda Zia following her victory.
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In 2017, after nearly a million Rohingya entered the country, fleeing genocide in Myanmar, Sheikh Hasina received credit and praise for giving them refuge and assistance.
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Sheikh Hasina won a fourth and fifth term after the 2018 and 2024 elections, which were marred by violence and widely criticised as being fraudulent.
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In February 2025, a UN OHCHR report found that Sheikh Hasina personally directed and coordinated the crackdown and there are reasonable grounds to believe that the widespread and systematic abuse of human rights during the crackdown may amount to crimes against humanity.
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Sheikh Hasina was among Times 100 most influential people in the world in 2018, and was listed as being one of the 100 most powerful women in the world by Forbes in 2015,2018, and 2022.
10.
Sheikh Hasina's father was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and her mother was Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib.
11.
Sheikh Hasina grew up in Tungipara during her early childhood under the care of her mother and grandmother.
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When Sheikh Hasina's father became a government minister in 1954, the family lived on 3 Minto Road.
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In many interviews and speeches, Sheikh Hasina talked about growing up while her father was held as a political prisoner by the Pakistani government.
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Sheikh Hasina enrolled for a bachelor's degree at Eden College.
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Sheikh Hasina was elected as the Vice President of the Students Union in Eden College between 1966 and 1967.
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Sheikh Hasina studied Bengali literature at Dhaka University, from where she graduated in 1973.
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Sheikh 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.
18.
Sheikh Hasina was involved in the politics of the Bangladesh Chhatra League and was elected as the general secretary of the women's unit in Rokeya Hall.
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Sheikh Hasina was barred from entering Bangladesh by the military government of Ziaur Rahman.
20.
Under martial law, Sheikh Hasina was in and out of detention throughout the 1980s.
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Sheikh Hasina led an eight-party alliance as opposition against Ershad.
22.
Sheikh Hasina worked with Khaleda Zia in organising opposition to Ershad.
23.
Sheikh Hasina led the Bangladesh Awami League in boycotting the parliament from 1994.
24.
Sheikh Hasina served her first term as Prime Minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001.
25.
Sheikh Hasina signed the 30-year water-sharing treaty with India governing the Ganges.
26.
Sheikh Hasina's administration repealed the Indemnity Act, which granted immunity from prosecution to the killers of Sheikh Mujib.
27.
In December 1997, Sheikh Hasina's administration signed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, ending the insurgency in the Chittagong Division for which Sheikh Hasina won the UNESCO Peace Prize.
28.
Sheikh Hasina's government established the Ashrayan-1 Project while bilateral relations with neighbouring states improved.
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Sheikh Hasina's government completed the Bangabandhu Bridge mega project in 1998.
30.
The Sheikh Hasina government adopted the New Industrial Policy in 1999 which aimed to bolster the private sector and attract foreign direct investment, thus expediating the globalisation process.
31.
The Sheikh Hasina administration introduced an allowance scheme which resulted in 400,000 elderly people receiving monthly allowances.
32.
Sheikh Hasina was the first prime minister to engage in a "Prime Minister's Question-Answer Time" in the Jatiya Sangsad.
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The Sheikh Hasina government liberalised the telecommunications industry, initially granting four licenses to private companies to provide cellular mobile telephone services.
34.
Sheikh Hasina's cabinet approved the National Plan of Action for Children in 1999 to ensure rights and improved upbringing.
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Sheikh Hasina attended the World Micro Credit summit in Washington DC; the World Food Summit in Rome; the Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference in India; the OIC summit in Pakistan; the 9th SAARC summit in the Maldives; the first D-8 summit in Turkey; the 5th World Conference for the Aged in Germany; the Commonwealth summit in the UK and the OIC summit in Iran.
36.
Sheikh Hasina visited the United States, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia.
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Sheikh Hasina became the first Bangladeshi prime minister since independence to complete an entire five-year term.
38.
Sheikh Hasina herself ran in three constituencies, and was defeated in a constituency in Rangpur, which included her husband's hometown, but won in two other seats.
39.
Sheikh Hasina went to the United States embassy on 14 March 2007 along with Kazi Zafarullah and Tareq Ahmed Siddique.
40.
Sheikh Hasina would fly the next day to the United States accompanied by Tareq Ahmed Siddique and Abdus Sobhan Golap.
41.
Sheikh Hasina visited her son and daughter who live in the United States.
42.
Sheikh Hasina was accused of having forced businessman Tajul Islam Farooq to pay bribes in 1998 before his company could build a power plant.
43.
Farooq said that he paid Sheikh Hasina for approving his project.
44.
On 18 April 2007, the Government barred Sheikh Hasina from returning, stating that she had made provocative statements and that her return could cause disorder.
45.
Sheikh Hasina vowed to return home, and on 22 April 2007, a warrant was issued for her arrest for murder.
46.
On 23 April 2007, the arrest warrant was suspended, and on 25 April 2007, the ban on Sheikh Hasina's entry was dropped.
47.
Sheikh Hasina told reporters that the government should not have delayed her return.
48.
On 16 July 2007, Sheikh Hasina was arrested by police at her home and taken before a local court in Dhaka.
49.
Sheikh Hasina was accused of extortion and denied bail and was held in a building converted into jail on the premises of the National Parliament.
50.
On 11 April 2007, the police filed murder charges against Sheikh Hasina, alleging that she masterminded the killing in October 2006 of four supporters of a rival political party.
51.
On 11 June 2008, Sheikh Hasina was released on parole for medical reasons.
52.
On 6 November 2008, Sheikh Hasina returned to Bangladesh to contest the 2008 general election scheduled for 29 December.
53.
Sheikh Hasina decided to participate in the parliamentary election under the banner of the "Grand Alliance" with the Jatiya Party, led by Hussain Muhammad Ershad, as its main partner.
54.
On 11 December 2008, Sheikh Hasina formally announced her party's election manifesto during a news conference and vowed to build a "Digital Bangladesh" by 2021.
55.
Sheikh Hasina was sworn into office as prime minister for a second term on 6 January 2009.
56.
Sheikh Hasina removed Awami League central committee members who supported reforms forced by the previous caretaker government.
57.
Sheikh Hasina had to confront a major national crisis in the form of the 2009 Bangladesh Rifles revolt over a pay dispute, which resulted in 56 deaths, including Bangladesh Army officers.
58.
Sheikh Hasina was blamed by the army officers due to her refusal to intervene against the revolt.
59.
However, In 2009, a recording emerged of Sheikh Hasina's private meeting with army officers, who expressed their anger with how she had not reacted more decisively in the revolt's early stages, by ordering an armed raid of the BDR Rifles compound; they believed that her efforts to appease the revolt's leaders delayed needed action which led to more deaths.
60.
Sheikh Hasina has been "credited internationally" for the achievement of some of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
61.
Sheikh Hasina responded by saying she did not understand why Yunus blamed her when it was a court verdict that removed him from Grameen Bank.
62.
Sheikh Hasina secured a second-consecutive term in office with her ruling Awami League and its Grand Alliance allies, winning the 2014 general election by a landslide.
63.
In September 2017, Sheikh Hasina's government granted refuge and aid to around a million Rohingya refugees and urged Myanmar to end violence against the Rohingya community.
64.
Sheikh Hasina supported calls to remove the Statue of Justice in front of the Supreme Court.
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Sheikh Hasina is a patron of the Asian University for Women, led by Chancellor Cherie Blair, and including the First Lady of Japan, Akie Abe, as well as Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO.
66.
Sheikh Hasina won her third consecutive term, her fourth overall, when her Awami League won 288 of the 300 parliamentary seats.
67.
The New York Times editorial board described the election as farcical, the editorial stated that it was likely Sheikh Hasina would have won without vote-rigging and questioned why she did so.
68.
In May 2021, Sheikh Hasina provided the inaugural address for the opening of a new headquarters for the Bangladesh Post Office, named the Dak Bhaban.
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Sheikh Hasina was accompanied by her daughter Saima Wazed, who is a candidate for a WHO election.
70.
The summit provided an opportunity for Sheikh Hasina to meet other global leaders and strengthen Bangladesh's bilateral ties.
71.
In January 2024 Sheikh Hasina won her fourth consecutive term when her party, the Awami League, won 224 of the 300 parliamentary seats amidst a low voter turnout in an election boycotted by the main opposition.
72.
In May 2024, Sheikh Hasina claimed that a "white country" was plotting to topple her government and claimed that she would be promised trouble-free elections in January if she allowed a "white country" to set up an airbase in Bangladesh.
73.
Sheikh Hasina alleged that there was a conspiracy to create a Christian country on the lines of East Timor and Myanmar.
74.
In June 2024, the prime minister Sheikh Hasina had visited India.
75.
In July 2024, at the invitation of the premier of China Li Qiang, Sheikh Hasina paid an official visit to China.
76.
Sheikh Hasina resigned on 5 August 2024, as large crowds of demonstrators surrounded the prime minister's residence.
77.
Sheikh Hasina's resignation was announced by General Waker-uz-Zaman, the Chief of the Army Staff.
78.
Later that day, Sheikh Hasina fled to India in a chaotic departure, first by car, then by helicopter, and finally by plane.
79.
Sheikh Hasina reportedly flew in a Bangladesh Air Force Lockheed C-130 transport to Hindon Air Force base in Ghaziabad, India, where she was received by the Indian national security advisor Ajit Doval along with other senior military officials.
80.
Sheikh Hasina insisted that Sheikh Hasina was still the prime minister, saying that she was unable to formally submit her resignation after being forced to flee from the protesters.
81.
Sheikh Hasina had hoped to go to London, but the United Kingdom reportedly rebuffed initial overtures seeking political asylum.
82.
Sheikh Hasina reportedly considered seeking temporary residence in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, or Qatar.
83.
Sheikh Hasina was living in a secret location in India under tight security as of August 2024.
84.
However, Wazed called the statement "false and fabricated" and said Sheikh Hasina "did not give any statement before or after leaving Dhaka".
85.
In December 2024, the Bangladeshi government opened an investigation against Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and her niece, Tulip Siddiq, who is an MP and was then a cabinet minister in the United Kingdom, over allegations of embezzlement of $5 billion in funds for the construction of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant using offshore accounts in Malaysia.
86.
On 17 January 2016, Sheikh Hasina stated that a managing director of a bank in the United States provoked the World Bank to cancel the loan.
87.
On 24 January 2017, in a speech in parliament, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blamed Muhammad Yunus for the World Bank's pulling out of the project.
88.
In December 2022, the Sheikh Hasina government ordered the closure of 191 websites accused of publishing "anti-state news" citing intelligence reports.
89.
In June 2024, Sheikh Hasina paid a state visit to New Delhi, during which Bangladesh and India signed ten bilateral agreements, including one on allowing India a rail corridor to its northeastern states through Bangladeshi territory.
90.
Domestically, Sheikh Hasina has been criticised as being too close to India, often at the cost of Bangladesh's sovereignty.
91.
Sheikh Hasina is seen by her critics as a manifestation of India's interference in Bangladeshi politics, which they have described as the main source of her power.
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In 1968, Hasina married M A Wazed Miah, a Bangladeshi physicist, writer, and chairman of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.
93.
Hasina's only living sibling, Sheikh Rehana, served as the adviser of Tungipara upazila unit Awami League in Gopalganj in 2017.
94.
Sheikh Hasina suffers from a hearing impairment as a result of injuries sustained during the 2004 grenade attack.