Bangladesh's ex-PM Sheikh Hasina oversaw upswing, repression

On Monday, following massive weekslong protests, Sheikh Hasina resigned from her office as Bangladesh's prime minister and boarded a helicopter to India. It was the second time that a trip abroad altered the course of the country's history.

Hasina was the longest-serving prime minister in the history of Bangladesh and the longest-serving female head of government in modern history. Her role at the helm of a 170-million-strong country had been uninterrupted for 15 years.

Under her rule, the country's economy flourished, while political opponents increasingly suffered under her strict leadership.

A stroke of fate and a happy coincidence

A key moment in her life was also a formative part of her country's history: On August 15, 1975, her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first leader of independent Bangladesh, and other family members were assassinated in a military coup. 

His daughter Hasina only survived because she had previously left for Germany, where her late husband, Wazed Miah, held a research position in nuclear physics. And so she, her sister and her two children stayed in Karlsruhe while a military junta seized power in Bangladesh.

Before returning to Bangladesh, both sisters spent several years in India, living in exile under an assumed identity. Then, in 1981, Bangladeshi President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated in a failed military coup. It was the same year that Hasina was elected as head of the Awami League — the political party her father had founded and a key player in Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan decades prior.

The fact that both countries, separated by 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) of land, were lumped together in the first place was a remnant of British colonial rule. Following the end of British rule in 1947, the remaining Muslim-majority territories were made one autonomous country until East Pakistan seceded in 1971 and became the People's Republic of Bangladesh. 

From alliance of convenience to archrivals

Bangladesh spent most of the 1980s in a military dictatorship under Hussain Muhammad Ershad. At the time, Hasina forged an alliance against him with other opposition parties, including the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) headed by Khaleda Zia, the widow of the 1981 assassinated president Rahman.

Although not related, both women lost close family members to military coups.

Together, they reached their goal of toppling Ershad in 1990, when he was forced out of office following massive anti-regime protests.

In the following democratic elections in 1991, Khaleda Zia became Bangladesh's first-ever female head of government. After one term in office, she was succeeded by Hasina for one term, before resuming leadership for another term. In 2009, Hasina resumed power, and remained at the helm until Monday — not least because the BNP has boycotted all parliamentary elections since, including most recently in January.

What started as an alliance out of convenience turned into a rivalry marred by personal accusations that divided the parties each politician led. While the secular Awami League has charged the BNP with tolerating Islamists in their midst and thereby paving the way for extremism, the BNP has criticized the head of the Awami League of using autocratic methods to stay in power.

Hasina, meanwhile, has accused her rival of the same. In 2018, Zia was found guilty of misuse of power and misappropriating money, for which she was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Now 78, Zia is serving her sentence in house arrest, where she is in poor health.

Throughout her career, Hasina has been the target of political violence. According to her own count, she said she has escaped 19 assassination attempts. In 2004, she was injured during an anti-terror rally when grenades thrown into the crowd killed 24.

Economic surge and political repression

Hasina oversaw Bangladesh's economic upswing, encouraging the construction of numerous power plants and an efficient power grid that could sustain the nation's rapidly industrializing electricity needs.

Today, Bangladesh is a cornerstone of the world's textile industry. This is also partly due to feeble labor protection laws and unlivable working wages. The 2013 collapse of a garment factory on Rana Plaza in Dhaka that killed over 1,100 workers drew global attention to the dire working conditions of Bangladesh's textile workers.

At the same time, Hasina has also come under fire for suppressing dissent in civil society. During her time in office, violent crackdowns on protests occurred time and again, and many opposition figures were arrested.

Since 2018, critical journalists have been at risk of being sentenced to 14 years in prison for what is deemed "negative propaganda." The global free speech organization Reporters Without Borders has ranked Bangladesh 165th out of the 180 nations listed in its latest Press Freedom Index.

Protests force Hasina from power

The wave of demonstrations that have now swept Hasina out of office began in July when mostly young people took to the streets protesting a quota for government jobs that reserves 30% of public sector positions for those who fought for independence in 1971 and their descendants.

The Awami League's prominent role in Bangladesh's fight for independence has meant that many of Hasina's party colleagues have benefited from this regulation.

But protests continued even after Bangladesh's top court scaled back the quota system considerably, and escalated to violent clashes with police that have seen over 300 killed, according to most recent counts.

At first, the government imposed a curfew and increased military presence in the capital. But when protesters stormed the prime minister's official residence on Monday, Hasina resigned and fled to India.

Waker-uz-Zaman, the country's military chief, has promised to form an interim government, but Bangladesh's future remains uncertain.

This article was originally written in German.