BANGLADESH

Today is the 75th birthday of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

The 75th birthday of prime minister and Bangladesh Awami League president Sheikh Hasina will be celebrated across the country today with due fervor today.

Sheikh Hasina, the eldest among the five children of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, was born at Tungipara in Gopalganj on September 28, 1947.

The celebrations would be held without the prime minister as she is now in the US to attend 76th United Nations General Assembly.

She delivered speech in Bangla there following the footprint of Bangabandhu.

The UN-sponsored Sustainable Development Solutions Network has conferred the prime minister with “SDG Progress Award” for Bangladesh’s steady course in responding to the universal call to take action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity for all.

The Awami League, its affiliated and likeminded bodies will celebrate the day through various programmes.

Discussions, milad and special prayers will be organised in the capital and across the country, with maintaining health guidelines in view of the coronavirus pandemic, reports BSS.

Sheikh Hasina spent much of her childhood in Tungipara where she started her schooling. She moved to Dhaka in 1954 when Bangabandhu was elected a legislator.

Today is the 75th birthday of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
On the occasion of Sheikh Hasina’s birthday, Bangladesh Awami League has decorated Bijoy Sarani Road in the capital

She was admitted to what is now Sher-e-Bangla Girls’ School and College and later to Azimpur Girls’ High School from where she completed her secondary education in 1965. She was then admitted to Badrunnessa Government Girls’ College.

She was elected as the vice-president of the students’ union of Eden Girls’ College. She enrolled in her masters’ programme at Bangla Department of Dhaka University.

As a student leader, Sheikh Hasina actively took part in the six-point movement of 1966 and the student movement of 1969 which saw the abdication of military junta Ayub Khan.

In 1968, with the blessings of her imprisoned father, Sheikh Hasina got married to nuclear scientist Dr Wazed Miah.

During the Liberation War, Sheikh Hasina and her family were interned in a house in Dhaka. On July 27 in 1971, her first child Sajeeb Wazed Joy was born. Her second child Saima Wazed Hossain was born on December 9, 1972.

After the assassination of Bangabandhu and his family in 1975, Sheikh Hasina and her family were offered political asylum in India, where she stayed till 1981 when she was elected as the president of the Awami League in her absence.

Sheikh Hasina returned home on May 17, 1981 when she was greeted by a mammoth crowd that extended from the Airport to Farmgate and Manik Miah Avenue.

In the 1986 parliamentary election, Sheikh Hasina was elected as parliament member from three different constituencies. After the overthrow of autocracy in 1990, she was elected as the leader of the opposition in the House.

In 1996, 21 years after her father was assassinated, Sheikh Hasina led the Awami League and helped the party assume power and became the prime minister for the first time.

On August 21, 2004, Sheikh Hasina, the then opposition leader, barely escaped an attempt on her life as grenades were thrown at an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital leaving at least 24 people were killed and over 200 injured.

In 2008, she led the Grand Alliance to an overwhelming victory acquiring 90 per cent of parliament seats in the general elections. She was elected the prime minister on January 5, 2014 for the second time in a row.

Sheikh Hasina assumed office of the prime minister for third consecutive term with a thumping victory in general elections in December 2018.

Under her leadership, Bangladesh has become a role model for development, attaining steady economic growth, becoming self-sufficient in food and attaining a marked progress in the fields of women empowerment, agriculture, education, health, infrastructure, communication, energy and power, trade and commerce, ICT and the SME sectors.

Sheikh Hasina was also conferred with various honourary degrees, accolades and awards in recognition of her leadership excellence and intellectual flair.
These include: honorary Doctor of Laws by the Waseda University of Japan, honorary Doctorate of Philosophy in Liberal Arts by University of Abertay Dundee, UK, honorary Degree of Desikottama by Visva-Bharati University of West Bengal, India, honorary Doctor of Laws by the Australian National University, honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by the Bridgeport University, USA, honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Dhaka, Paul Haris
Fellowship by the Rotary International, UNESCO’s Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize in 1998, M K Gandhi Award in 1998, Mother Teresa Award in 1998 and 2006, Pearl S. Buck Award by Randolph Macon Women’s College of USA in 1999, CERES Medal in 1999, UN Award for MDG achievement (child mortality) in 2010, Indira Gandhi Peace Prize in 2009, South-South Award in 2011, UN Award for MDG Achievement in 2013, Rotary Peace Prize in 2013, Tree of Peace in 2014, ICT Sustainable Development Award in 2015, Champions of the Earth in 2015, Agent of Change Award in 2016 and Planet 50-50 Champion in 2016.

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