It's a sad truth that many of history’s most hardcore women either get a seriously bad rap or are just ignored altogether. You see, history as we know it, was for the most part written by dudes; men who in most cases didn't really appreciate women who didn't realize that their place was barefoot in the kitchen making brownies and popping out babies every fifteen minutes – not formulating government policies and by extension ruling over them.
But this month, we say screw that noise and celebrate the fact that just like Jay-Z confirmed that ladies can be pimps too, ladies can dictate too.
Enter Sheikh Hasina Wazed.
With the distinction of being Bangladesh’s longest serving Prime Minister, she is literally the personification of the phrase “hell no, I won’t go.” And aside from the cricketers who beat the mighty Zimbabwe to clinch their first ODI victory in 2004, Hasina remains one of the most badass human beings ever produced by her country.
Born in 1947 into a life of wealth, privilege, and one-percenter opulence, Hasina could have spent her life binge-watching Girlfriends without ever having to lift a finger to work but as will become evident, that kind of lifestyle wasn't this chick's bag.
It just so happened that her dad was the first President of Bangladesh. But you see, when Hasina was born, Bangladesh wasn’t really a thing. The story is long and we don’t have time to get into it but basically...the Brits colonised India (as they do) including the Bengal region. Following the end of colonisation, Pakistan and the western part of Bengal (East Pakistan) formed a single cownthry for 24 years. After a longish war, East Pakistan left Pakistan and declared independence as the new nation, Bangladesh, on 26 March 1971.
The good times weren’t to last for long.
On 15 August 1975, Hasina’s parents and 3 brothers were assassinated during a military coup. At the time, Hasina was in West Germany and so was spared physical harm but was forced to seek asylum in India.
While hiding out, Hasina was elected President of the Bangladesh Awami League (the AL). She then returned in 1981 to be on the ground and stuff. The junta, probably aware how much she had missed being home, very thoughtfully placed her under house arrest.
Before Zoom and COVID-19 made working from home vogue, Hasina was ahead of the game. Despite being stuck at home, she struck up an alliance with another opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which was headed by iron-lady, Khaleda Zia. The fiery pair worked to restore a democratic government and sort of did, as the BNP won the 1981 election.
The pair’s efforts culminated in a huge mass protest in December 1990 which ousted President Ershad and put in place a caretaker government. Yet another election saw the BNP winning a majority and making Hasina's AL the largest opposition party.
The AL demanded that the next general elections be held under a neutral caretaker government, and that caretaker governments manage all elections in the future. The BNP, now the ruling party, refused to accept these demands because nobody wants to reform themselves out of power.
In response, the opposition parties called for strikes which the government accused of destroying the economy. The opposition countered that BNP could solve this problem by meeting their demands. A classic stalemate.
The 1995 elections went on as planned, but were boycotted by all the major parties. Unsurprisingly, BNP won all the parliamentary seats with our girl Hasina describing the election in strong words as a farce.
Not to worry though, because Bangladesh seems to have about as many elections as Instagram-famous megachurch pastors have side-chicks. The country went to the polls again in 1996 where the AL won but fell short of getting the majority. Khaleda Zia denounced the results and alleged vote rigging even though observers called it “free and fair”. Whether or not they were really depends on which side of the political aisle you sit on.
Anyway, Hasina scored enough votes to be appointed Prime Minister. Her tenure was marked by a lot of achievements including boring stuff like signing a water sharing treaty with India, opening up the telecommunications industry and enacting an industrial policy that encouraged private business.
The only really juicy thing that her administration did was repeal the Indemnity Act, which protected her father’s killers - because she hadn’t forgotten about that and hell hath no wrath like a woman whose life has been turned upside down by murderous villains. Just ask that lady from Kill Bill. Oh, and she also had the honour of being the first Prime Minister to complete a whole term.
Despite all that, haters will hate. Opposition, political unrest and violence only increased during Hasina’s tenure. An MP was shot dead in May 2004 and some chancer threw a grenade at an AL gathering, killing 24 people including the women's secretary.
Things got worse when, while on a trip to the USA in 2007, Hasina was charged with extortion. All she’d done was to allegedly force a businessman to pay bribes for a tender to build a power plant - which in some places actually qualifies you to be Head of State. Anywho, the Government barred Hasina from returning, saying that she had made provocative statements and that her return could cause disorder.
On 22 April, another warrant was issued for her arrest; this time for murder. She was accused of masterminding the killing of four supporters of a rival political party in 2006. But let's be honest, which politician hasn’t done that? This warrant was suspended the next day along with her ban on re-entering the country.
Hasina took the bait, returned home where she was greeted by a large crowd before being arrested on charges of extortion and denied bail. The AL said the arrest was politically motivated. No duh.
Not soon after though, the High Court ended Hasina's extortion trial and released her on bail. But on 13 January 2008, Hasina and her sister and cousin were indicted on extortion charges (again) by a special court. On 6 February, the High Court stopped the trial (again), eventually releasing Hasina for medical reasons.
Yet another election followed in November 2008 and despite the globe-trotting and being in and out of court, she channelled her inner Jacob Zuma and won the 2008 general election bagging a second term as Prime Minister.
Her first order of business was to purge her party of people who had stood by and cheered while her name was dragged through muddy courtrooms. Clearly this pissed some dangerous people off because in 2012, Hasina narrowly survived an assasination and coup attempt.
Meantime, the flood of litigation continued. In 2013, a case against Hasina and 24 other Bangladeshi Ministers and security personnel was lodged at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged human rights violations.
And yet this did very little to affect her at the polls. Perhaps the complaints by the opposition of stuffed ballot boxes, violence and voter intimidation may explain why. Hasina secured a third successive term in office in 2014 with a “landslide” election victory.
This was followed by another decisive victory in 2019, which even neutrals called farcical. Oddly, according to New York Times projections, Hasina would have likely won the elections without rigging them. To be fair though, we all know what happened the last time American media projections called an election in favour of a female candidate. Perhaps rigging was actually the logical thing to do.
And so here we are. And there she still is. Undoubtedly, Hasina Wazed’s legacy is a mixed one. On one hand, she is considered one of the most powerful women in the world and has been recognized for achieving some of the UN Millennium Development Goals - which I guess is a good thing. But then she’s also overseen an increasingly brutal regime that is intolerant of dissent and undermines the will of the electorate in what has been euphemistically called “democratic backsliding” - which isn’t so good.
The jury’s still out and she still has time to solidify what she will be remembered for. But one thing about Hasina, she’s probably not going anywhere any time soon.
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