Sheikh Hasina
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Sheikh Hasina Wazed (born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2024. She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's founding president, and has been President of the Awami League since 1981. During her tenure, she became the country's longest-serving prime minister and one of the longest-serving female heads of government globally. Born to the Tungipara Sheikh family in Gopalganj, Hasina had little presence in politics prior to the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. After years in exile, she returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and became President of the Awami League. She led the party in opposition to military rule and played a key role in the 1990 uprising that restored parliamentary democracy. After serving as Leader of the Opposition from 1991 to 1996, she won the June 1996 general election, beginning her first term as prime minister. She served as Leader of the Opposition again from 2001 to 2006 before winning the 2008 general election and beginning her second premiership. Her second premiership was marked by significant economic and infrastructural development, as well as increasing international concern over democratic backsliding, enforced disappearances, human rights abuses and restrictions on political opposition and press freedom. Critics accused her government of consolidating power, corruption and embezzlement of foreign reserve. Observers raised allegations of electoral irregularities in the 2014, 2018 and 2024 general elections. In July 2024, mass student-led protests began, which security forces cracked down on, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of protesters. The protests culminated in her resignation and flight to India in August 2024. In November 2025, she was convicted in absentia by the Bangladeshi International Crimes Tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity, including ordering lethal force against protesters, and sentenced to death, which she rejected as politically motivated. Hasina was among Time magazine's 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.