Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been included in the Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people of 2018.
US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and North Korea Supreme Leader Kim Jong - un also made the list.
Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch, who wrote a profile of the Bangladesh premier for the list, said Sheikh Hasina’s bravery as a political figure is one of the leading factors that contributed to her making the list.
How the prime minister is handling a humanitarian challenge like the Rohingya crisis is mentioned as an exemplary act of humanitarianism.
Time said Bangladesh is an impoverished country itself, but it did not turn its back on victims of ethnic cleansing; instead, it welcomed and sheltered a massive number of refugees.
Ganguly reminisced about the first time she met Sheikh Hasina and the impression the leader left on her, as well as the last time they met.
“I first met Sheikh Hasina in the 1990s, when she was fiercely campaigning to end military rule in Bangladesh. Our last meeting was in 2008, when she was campaigning against another military regime. The following year she became prime minister after a landslide election victory, ” wrote Ganguly.
Sheikh Hasina has never been afraid of a fight, which makes her a strong leader. She bears the legacy of her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, the profile read.
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