Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has underscored the importance of women empowerment in reducing poverty, ending discrimination and making progress.
“Being a woman,” the prime minister said, she understands the struggles related to poverty in Bangladesh, the obstacles that most women face, and how their non-inclusion stalls a nation’s progress.
Sometimes “women are better than men,” she said in an interview with Petula Dvorak, a Washington Post columnist. The article was published on Monday.
In the past decade, Sheikh Hasina said, her government significantly reduced poverty in the country, expanded educational opportunities and improved housing.
The article quoted the World Bank, which gives high marks for growth in Bangladesh to Sheikh Hasina’s leadership, noting it went from “being one of the poorest nations at birth in 1971” to reaching “lower-middle income status in 2015”.
Dvorak interviewed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Ritz-Carlton in north Virginia, where she was staying after attending the UNGA in New York.
Highlighting the prime minister’s success stories, Dvorak wrote, Sheikh Hasina is the longest-serving female head of government in the world.
The article also highlighted the fact that Sheikh Hasina has been upholding the legacy of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as Bangladesh's prime minister for four terms, totaling 18 years so far.
At the UN General Assembly, it said, the prime minister asked for help with accommodating more than a million Rohingya refugees who fled the violence in Myanmar and settled in Bangladesh camps.
Dvorak quoted Sheikh Hasina as saying that camp life is not good and the Rohingyas want to return to their country.
Her nation’s migrant situation cannot be compared with America’s, she said, adding that the United States is a vast country with lots of land and opportunities for work.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh ranks No 8 in the world in terms of population, with more than 171 million people, but its size is close to that of Wisconsin in the US.
The article also highly appreciated the Sheikh Hasina government’s zero-tolerance approach to domestic terrorism.
The article said the prime minister is leading a nation with more people than Russia and survived at least 20 assassination attempts, including a particularly bloody grenade attack in 2004.
Referring to a man named Abdullah Niami, the writer said, he raised his 6-year-old daughter Zoya up high as he wanted her to see Sheikh Hasina — a female head of government which “America won’t see anytime soon”.
In a refreshing approach, it has also provided glimpses of Sheikh Hasina’s lighter side.
The article mentions that the PM Hasina celebrated her 75th birthday with her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and her 16-year-old granddaughter, who live in a suburb just outside Washington DC.
“I cook for them,” Hasina said. “Chicken biryani … At my son’s house, I have my own kitchen that’s just for me.”
