Sheikh Hasina was born in Tungipara, East Pakistan on 28 September 1947. Her father was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the ‘father’ of the Bengali Nation, and the first President of Bangladesh. Her mother was Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib. She has said in many interviews that she had grown up in fear due to her father’s’ political works. She married physicist M. A. Wazed Miah in 1968, who was chosen for her by her father. During the peak of violence in the 1970 Pakistani general election, as well as her father’s arrest, she had lived in refuge with her grandmother. She was active in the student politics of the University of Dhaka.

Hasina married M. A. Wazed Miah in 1968. Her husband died on 9 May 2009. She has one son, Sajeeb Wazed, and one daughter, Saima Wazed. Putul’s father-in-law is former minister of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment and present minister of LGRD, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain. Hasina’s only living sibling is Sheikh Rehana who is also a Bangladesh Awami League politician.

Hasina was not in Bangladesh when her father, and most of her family, were assassinated on 15 August 1975 during a military coup d’état by members of the Bangladesh Army. She was in West Germany where her husband, M. A. Wazed Miah, was working as a nuclear physicist. She moved to Delhi in late 1975 and was provided asylum by India. Her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, studied at Indian boarding schools. During her time in India Hasina was not involved in politics, but became close friends with Suvra Mukherjee, wife of the future Indian President Pranab Mukherjee.

Hasina was not allowed to return to Pakistan until after she was elected to lead the Awami League Party on 16 February 1981, and arrived home on 17 May 1981. She is the aunt of British MP Tulip Siddiq.

While living in self-exile in India, Hasina was elected President of the Bangladesh Awami League (AL) in 1981. The AL has been described as a “left-of-center” party.

Under martial law, Hasina was in and out of detention throughout the 1980s. In 1984, she was put under house arrest in February and again in November. In March 1985, she was put under house arrest for another three months. Her party, along with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) under Khaleda Zia, continued to work to restore democratically elected government, which they achieved by the democratic election in 1991, won by the BNP.

Hasina and AL participated in the 1986 Bangladeshi general election held under President Hussain Muhammad Ershad. She served as the leader of the Parliamentary Opposition in 1986–1987. She led an eight-party alliance as opposition against Ershad. Hasina’s decision to take part in the election had been criticised by her opponents, since the election was held under martial law, and the other main opposition group boycotted the poll. However, her supporters maintained that she used the platform effectively to challenge Ershad’s rule. Ershad dissolved the parliament in December 1987 when Hasina and her Awami League resigned in an attempt to call for a fresh general election to be held under a neutral government. During November and December in 1987, a mass uprising happened in Dhaka and several people were killed, including Noor Hossain, a Hasina supporter.

After several years of autocratic rule, widespread protests and strikes had paralysed the economy. Government officers refused to follow orders and resigned. Members of the Bangladesh Rifles laid down their weapons instead of firing on protestors and curfew was openly violated. Hasina worked with Khaleda Zia in organizing opposition to Ershad. A huge mass protest in December 1990 ousted Ershad from power when he resigned in favour of his vice president, Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed, the Chief Justice of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. The caretaker government, headed by Ahmed, administered a general election for the parliament. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Khaleda Zia won a general majority, and Hasina’s Awami League emerged as the largest opposition party. Among three constituencies Hasina fought, she lost in two and won in one. Accepting election defeat, She offered her resignation as the party president but stayed on at the request of party leaders.

Politics in Bangladesh took a decisive turn in 1994, after a by-election in Magura, held after the death of the MP for that constituency, a member of Hasina’s party. The Awami League had expected to win back the seat, but the BNP candidate won through rigging and manipulation, according to the neutral observer who came to witness the election. Hasina led the Bangladesh Awami League in boycotting the parliament from 1994.

Opposition parties launched an unprecedented campaign, calling strikes for weeks on end. The Government accused them of destroying the economy while the opposition countered that BNP could solve this problem by acceding to their demands. In late 1995, the MPs of AL and other parties resigned from parliament. Parliament completed its term and the 15 February 1996 Bangladeshi general election was held. The election was boycotted by all major parties except the ruling BNP, who won all the seats in the parliament as a result. Hasina described the election as a farce.

Hasina served her first term as Prime Minister (PM) of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001. She became the first Bangladeshi PM since its independence to complete the entire term. She signed the 30-year water sharing treaty of the Ganges with India. Her administration repealed the Indemnity Act, which protected the killers of Sheikh Muijib, her father and first President of Bangladesh. Her government opened the telecom industry, which till then was limited to government owned companies, to the private sector. In 1999 the government started the New Industrial Policy (NIP) which aimed to strengthen the private industry and encourage growth.

In the 2001 Bangladeshi general election, although winning 40% of the popular vote (slightly less than BNP’s 41%), AL won just 62 seats in the Parliament, while the ‘Four Party Alliance’ led by BNP won 234 seats, giving them a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Hasina herself ran in three constituencies, and was defeated in a constituency in Rangpur, which included her husband’s home town, but won in two other seats. Hasina and AL rejected the results, claiming that the election was rigged with the help of the President and the caretaker government. The international community was largely satisfied with the elections, and the ‘Four Party Alliance’ went on to form the government.

The Awami League MPs were irregular in attending the Parliament during the following period. In late 2003, the Awami League started its first major anti-government movement, culminating in the declaration by party general secretary Abdul Jolil that the government would fall before 30 April 2004. This failed to happen and was seen as a blow to the party and Hasina, who had implicitly supported Jalil.

During her second term as leader of the opposition, political unrest and violence increased. MP Ahsanullah Master died after he was shot in May 2004. This was followed by a grenade attack on 21 August on an Awami League gathering in Dhaka, resulting in the death of 24 party supporters, including Ivy Rahman, party women’s secretary. On 10 October 2018, a special court gave verdicts in two cases filed over the incident; the court ruled that it was a well-orchestrated plan, executed through abuse of state power, and all the accused, including BNP Senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman (in absentia) and former top intelligence officials, were found guilty. The court handed down various punishments. Shah A M S Kibria, Hasina’s former finance minister, was also killed that year (2004) in a grenade attack in Sylhet.

In June 2005, A. B. M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury, an incumbent of the Awami League, won the important mayoral election in Chittagong, the ‘Port City’ of, and second-largest city in, Bangladesh. This election was seen as a showdown between the opposition and the ruling party.

In April 2007, Hasina was charged with graft and extortion by the military backed Caretaker Government during the 2006–08 Bangladeshi political crisis. She was accused of having forced Bangladeshi businessman Tajul Islam Farooq to pay bribes in 1998 before his company could build a power plant. Farooq said that he paid Hasina for approving his project.

On 18 April 2007, the Government barred Hasina from returning, saying that she had made provocative statements and that her return could cause disorder. This was described as a temporary measure. The Caretaker Government had also been trying to get Khaleda Zia to leave the country. Hasina vowed to return home, and on 22 April 2007, a warrant was issued for her arrest for murder. Describing the case against her as “totally false and fake”, Hasina said that she wanted to defend herself against the charges in court. On 23 April 2007, the arrest warrant was suspended, and on 25 April 2007, the ban on Hasina’s entry was dropped. After spending 51 days in the United States and the UK, on 7 May 2007 Hasina returned to Dhaka, where she was greeted by a crowd of several thousand. She told reporters that the Government should not have delayed her return.

On 16 July 2007, Hasina was arrested by police at her home and taken before a local court in Dhaka. She was accused of extortion and denied bail, and was held in a building converted into a jail on the premises of the National Parliament. AL said the arrest was politically motivated. On 17 July 2007, the Anti-Corruption Commission sent notices to both Hasina and Khaleda Zia, instructing them to provide details of their assets within one week. Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy was out of the country, and said he would try to organise worldwide protest. These arrests of the political leaders were widely seen as a move by the military-backed interim Government to force Hasina and Zia out of the country and into political exile. United Kingdom MPs condemned the arrest. On 11 April 2007, the police filed murder charges against Hasina, alleging that she masterminded the killing in October 2006 of four supporters of a rival political party. The four alleged victims were beaten to death during clashes between AL and rival party activists. Hasina was visiting the United States at the time.

On 30 July 2007, the Dhaka High Court suspended Hasina’s extortion trial and ordered her release on bail. On 2 September 2007, an additional case was filed against Hasina by the Anti-Corruption Commission regarding the awarding of a contract for the construction of a power plant in 1997, for which she allegedly took a bribe of 30 million takas and kept the contract from going to the lowest bidder. Six others were also accused of involvement. A graft case was filed against Zia on the same day.

On 13 January 2008, Hasina was indicted on extortion charges by a special court along with two of her relatives, her sister Sheikh Rehana and her cousin Sheikh Selim. On 6 February, the High Court stopped the trial, ruling that she could not be prosecuted under emergency laws for crimes alleged to have been committed prior to the imposition of the state of emergency.

On 11 June 2008, Hasina was released on parole for medical reasons. The next day she flew to the United States to be treated for hearing impairment, eye problems and high blood pressure. Syed Modasser Ali, her personal physician, threatened to sue the caretaker Government over negligence regarding Hasina’s treatment during her detention. The caretaker Government held mayoral elections in which AL won 12 out of 13 mayoral elections. The caretaker Government extended her two-month medical parole by one more month.

On 6 November 2008, Hasina returned to Bangladesh to attend the 2008 Bangladeshi general election scheduled for 29 December. She decided to participate in the parliamentary election under the name of “Grand Alliance” with the Jatiya Party, led by Hussain Muhammad Ershad, as its main partner. On 11 December 2008, Hasina formally announced her party’s election manifesto during a news conference, and vowed to build a “Digital Bangladesh” by 2021.

Her Bangladesh Awami League and its Grand Alliance (a total of 14 parties) won the 2008 general election with a two-thirds majority numerically the party controlled 230 seats out of 299. Khaleda Zia leader of the BNP-led coalition (4-Party Alliance) rejected the results of the election by questioning the Chief Election Commissioner “for stage-managing the parliamentary election”. Hasina was sworn into office as the Prime Minister for the second time on 6 January 2009. Independent observers declared the elections were held in a festive and peaceful atmosphere. After being Prime Minister, Hasina reneged on her agreement with the Jatiya Party to make Ershad, its leader, the President.

Hasina removed many of her parties politicians who supported reforms forced by the previous caretaker Government. She had to confront a major national crisis in the form of the 2009 Bangladesh Rifles revolt over a pay dispute, that resulted in 75 deaths including Bangladesh Army officers. Some Bangladesh Army officers blamed Hasina for the deaths by not sending in the Army earlier. In 2011, the Parliament removed the law that required non-party Caretaker government hold elections. In 2012, she maintained a hard line stance and refused to allow entry to Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar during the 2012 Rakhine State riots.

As a result of the allegations, The World Bank pulled out of a project to build Bangladesh’s largest bridge, citing corruption concerns, cancelling $1.2bn (£764m) credit for the 6 km-long (four miles) road-rail bridge over the Padma River. Hasina removed the Communication Minister Syed Abul Hossain from office three months after dismissal of the case. On 11 July 2012, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the Awami League government should make public a letter sent by the World Bank, wherein the Bank brought graft charges against Hasina and three other figures. On 17 January 2016, Sheikh Hasina stated that an MD of a bank from the USA provoked the WB to cancel the loan.

On 27 June 2013, a case against Hasina and 24 other Bangladeshi Ministers and security personnel was lodged at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the alleged violation of human rights. She has been “credited internationally” for the achievement of some of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. In 2012 a coup attempt against her by mid ranking army officers was stopped, with the Bangladesh Army being tipped off by an Indian intelligence agency. The Bangladesh Army described the army officers involved as being Islamic extremists. In 2012, she had a falling out with Muhammad Yunus, Nobel laureate and founder of Grameen Bank, following a Norwegian documentary that was critical of Yunus transferring money from Grameen Bank to an affiliate organisation. Yunus transferred the money back after the documentary aired but it increased scrutiny of the Bank by the Government and media in Bangladesh. Yunus lost control of his Bank following a court verdict. He criticised Hasina and other Bangladeshi politicians. She responded by saying she did not understand why Yunus blamed her when it was a court verdict that removed him from Grameen Bank. During this term, her Government led and succeeded in forming the International Crimes Tribunal (Bangladesh), to investigate and prosecute suspects involved in the Bangladesh genocide, committed by the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, Razakars, Al-Badr, and Al-Shams during the Bangladesh Liberation war in 1971.

BNP, the main opposition party that has been out of power for 12 years and boycotted the 10th general polls in 2014, fared extremely poorly. Bagging only eight seats, the party and its Jatiya Oikya Front alliance have been marginalized to the weakest opposition ever, since Bangladesh’s post-Ershad democratic restoration in 1991.

A general election was held in January 2014 which was boycotted by the major parties of the opposition alliance, including BNP. The election was controversial with reports of violence and an alleged crackdown on the opposition in the run-up to the election. 153 seats (of 300) went uncontested in the election, of which Awami League won 127 by default. Hasina’s Awami League won a safe parliamentary majority with a total of 234 seats. As a result of the boycott and violence voter turnout was lower than the previous few elections at only 51%. The day after the result, Hasina said that the boycott should “not mean there will be a question of legitimacy. People participated in the poll and other parties participated.” Despite the controversy Hasina went on to form a Government with Ershad’s Jatiya Party (who won 34 seats) as the official opposition.

In March 2017, Bangladesh’s first two submarines were commissioned. In September 2017, Hasina’s government gave temporary shelter and aid to about a million Rohingya refugees and urged Myanmar to end violence against Rohingya Muslims. The majority of the Bangladeshi people supported the government decision to provide refugee to Rohingya. Hasina received credit and praise for her actions.

On 24 January 2017, in a speech in parliament, Prime Minister Hasina blamed Muhammad Yunus for the World Bank’s pulling out of the project. According to her, Yunus lobbied with the former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to persuade the World Bank to terminate the loan. On 10 February 2017, an Ontario (Canada) Superior court justice dismissed the bribery-conspiracy case for lack of any proof.

In 2018 Hasina’s government passed the controversial “Digital Security Act 2018”, under which any criticisms of the Government over the internet or any other media, would be met with various degrees of prison terms. This was heavily criticized both domestically and internationally for suppressing peoples freedom of speech as well as undermining press freedom in Bangladesh.