Sheikh Hasina's name moved with Bangladesh's pulse for almost twenty years, at times steady and at other times turbulent. Her detractors saw her as an authoritarian whose thirst for power made her oblivious to the cries of the people, while her supporters saw her as the architect of a modern, thriving Bangladesh.
However, few could have predicted that the 77 year old former prime minister would be put on trial by the same tribunal that was previously established to punish hardcore war collaborators.
The narrative of the longest serving female head of state in the world took a dramatic turn on Monday when the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) sentenced Hasina to death in absentia.
Hasina was born on September 28, 1947, in Tungipara, East Pakistan. Her family would go on to shape Bangladesh's identity. Her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, became the founding father of Bangladesh and guided it to independence in 1971 with India's assistance.
She became quite involved in student politics while pursuing her master's degree in Bengali literature at the University of Dhaka. Hasina wed nuclear scientist M. A. Wazed Miah in 1968. Miah's quiet, academic life contrasted with the unrest in Bangladeshi politics. Up until his death in 2009 at the age of 67, Wazed was a constant in Hasina's life. Sajeeb Wazed Joy is their son, while Saima Wazed Putul is their daughter.
Following the military coup in August 1975, which resulted in the assassinations of Hasina's mother, father, three brothers, and several other family members, her political fate became more set in stone. The only reason she and her younger sister Rehana survived was because they were overseas.
She was granted shelter by India under then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Six years later, Hasina returned to Bangladesh in May 1981, where she was chosen in absentia to serve as the Awami League's general secretary.
Khaleda Zia, the widow of deceased President Ziaur Rahman, was waiting for Hasina when she returned in 1981 to take the helm of the Awami League. For almost thirty years, the 'Battling Begums' fought ideological and electoral conflicts that shaped Bangladeshi politics.
In 1996, Hasina defeated Zia in a hotly contested election to become prime minister for the first time. After losing power in 2001, she won a landslide victory in 2008, starting what her detractors claim was a protracted period of rule.
The Awami League won three elections during her leadership: the general election in 2008, the election in 2014, which Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted, and the election in 2018, which gave Hasina one of the longest tenures for a female leader in history.
Bangladesh saw tremendous economic expansion, significant infrastructure accomplishments like the Padma Bridge, and improvements in poverty alleviation under her tenure.
Under her leadership, the nation also rose to prominence in the worldwide apparel industry. However, the praise was accompanied by allegations of increased state security powers, restrictions on the media, arrests of opposition leaders, and repression of dissent.
Student led protests over government employment quotas for offspring of soldiers of the independence war began in 2024 and eventually grew into a statewide revolt against Hasina's government. After the ensuing crackdown unleashed waves of bloodshed, Hasina was forced to leave her position of authority and escape to India.
After Hasina was overthrown, the interim administration under Muhammad Yunus reorganized the ICT, which she had previously used to prosecute war criminals, in order to accuse her of crimes against humanity in connection with the 2024 crackdown.
According to a UN rights agency investigation, her government authorized a widespread security crackdown during last year's student uprising, known as the July Uprising, which took place between July 15 and August 15 and resulted in up to 1,400 deaths.
The tribunal sentenced Hasina, the four time prime minister and political heir of Bangladesh's founding leader, to death on Monday following months of procedures she never attended.
Currently living in exile in India, Hasina often referred to as the "Iron Lady" of Bangladesh observes from across the border as the country she helped establish and frequently ruled with a hard hand struggles with the legacy of her ascent and descent.
