How the younger generation in Bangladesh ousted the leader who had ruled most of their lives
Jannatul Prome hopes to leave Bangladesh to study more or perhaps find a job after she graduates, frustrated by a system she says doesn't reward merit and offers few opportunities for young people.
“We have very limited options here,” said the 21-year-old, who would have left sooner if her family had enough money to pay for both her and her older brother's overseas university education at the same time.
But recent events have given her hope that one day she can return to a changed Bangladesh: After 15 years in power, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country last week — driven out by young protesters, among them Prame, who say , that they are fed up with the way her increasingly autocratic rule stifles dissent, favors the elite and widens inequality.
Students first took to the streets of Bangladesh in June to demand an end to rules that give up to 30 percent of government jobs to descendants of veterans who fought in the country's 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. Protesters said this benefited supporters of Hasina's Awami League, who were leading the fight – and who were already part of the elite. The quota and other quotas for marginalized groups meant that only 44 percent of civil service jobs were assigned on the basis of merit.
That such jobs were at the heart of the movement was no accident: they are among the most stable and highest-paying in a country where the economy has boomed in recent years, but not enough durable professional jobs have been created for the well-educated average class. .
And it was no surprise that Gen Z led this rebellion either: young people like Prome are some of the most disillusioned and disenfranchised in Bangladesh—yet they defy old taboos and narratives that the system has beaten back. quota
Their willingness to break with the past became evident when Hasina downplayed their demands in mid-July, asking who but freedom fighters should be given government posts.
“Who will be? Grandsons of the Razakars?” Hasina responded by using a highly offensive word to refer to those who collaborated with Pakistan to suppress Bangladesh's struggle for independence.
But the protesting students wore the word as a badge of honor. They marched across the Dhaka University campus chanting, “Who are you? who am i Razakar. Who said that? Dictator”.
The next day, protesters were killed in clashes with security forces, which only fueled the demonstrations, which turned into a wider uprising against Hasina's rule.
Sabrina Karim, a Cornell University professor who studies political violence and Bangladesh's military history, said many of the protesters are so young they cannot remember when Hasina was prime minister.
They were raised, like previous generations, on the stories of the struggle for independence, which centered on Hasina's family. Her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was the first leader of independent Bangladesh and was later assassinated in a military coup. But Karim said that narrative has far less meaning for young protesters than it does for their grandparents.
“It doesn't resonate with them as much as it (used to). And they want something new,” she said.
Noorin Sultana Toma, a 22-year-old student at Dhaka University, said Hasina's likening of the student protesters to traitors made her realize the gulf between what the youth want and what the government can provide.
She said she had watched Bangladesh slowly lull itself to the point where it had become immune to inequality and people had lost hope that things would ever get better.
The country's longest-serving prime minister has prided herself on raising per capita income and turning Bangladesh's economy into a global competitor, turning fields into garment factories and bumpy roads into winding highways. But Toma said she has seen the daily struggle of people trying to buy basic necessities or find work, and her demand for basic rights is met with insults and violence.
“This could not be tolerated any longer,” Tomo said.
The youth of Bangladesh have felt this economic calamity. Eighteen million young people — in a country of 170 million — are neither working nor in school, according to Chietij Bajpai, who studies South Asia at the Chatham House think tank. And after the pandemic, jobs in the private sector have become even more scarce.
Many young people try to study abroad or move abroad after graduation in the hope of finding a decent job, destroying the middle class and leading to a brain drain.
“Class differences have widened,” said Janatoon Nahar Ankan, a 28-year-old who works with a non-profit organization in Dhaka and joined the protests.
Despite these challenges, none of the protesters seemed to believe that their movement would be able to dethrone Hasina.
Rafij Khan, 24, was on the streets preparing to join the protest when he heard that Hasina had resigned and fled the country. He called home repeatedly to see if he could check the news.
He said that in the last days of the demonstrations, people of all classes, religions and professions joined the students in the streets. Now they were hugging each other while the others just sat on the ground in disbelief.
“I can't describe the joy that people felt that day,” he said.
Part of this euphoria fades now, when the enormity of the task ahead becomes clear. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus became interim leader on Thursday and will be tasked with restoring peace, building institutions and preparing the country for new elections, along with a cabinet that includes two student protest leaders.
Most students hope that the interim government will have time to repair Bangladesh's institutions while a new political party is formed that is not led by the old political dynasties.
“If you asked me to vote in an election right now, I don't know who I would vote for,” Khan said. “We don't want to replace one dictatorship with another.”
The youth who took to the streets are often called the “I hate politics” generation.
But Azaher Uddin Anik, a 26-year-old digital security specialist and recent graduate of Dhaka University, said that was a misnomer.
They do not hate all politics – only the politics of division in Bangladesh.
And while he admits that the structural reforms the country needs now may be more difficult than removing a prime minister, he is hopeful for the first time in a while.
“My recent experience tells me that the impossible can happen,” he said. “Maybe it's not too late.”
