OVER THE past 30 years Bangladesh has become known for many achievements and positive characteristics: declining poverty rates; being the birthplace of microcredit and the Silicon Valley of social entrepreneurship and social business; developing the concept of holding elections under neutral caretaker governments to inspire trust in the competing parties; developing an industry that employs millions of women to export billions of dollars’ worth of garments to clothe the world; and becoming the eighth-most-populous country in the world. Only four languages have more native speakers than our national tongue, Bengali.
Unfortunately, we have also become known for having our democracy erode into autocracy, with sham elections in 2014, 2018 and most notoriously 2024 overshadowing the vibrant ones held in 1991, 1996 and 2008. No Bangladeshi younger than 30 has ever cast a vote in an unrigged national election. Over the past 15 years the government corrupted many of our institutions, most tragically the judiciary and education system, at all levels.
As a result, many of our talented leaders across every field have left for other countries. Those who remained faced the choice between pledging their support to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, or being persecuted. I chose the second option, and as of last week I had 190 court cases pending against me. One criminal case I am facing has a maximum sentence of life in prison. I was charged with forgery, embezzlement and money-laundering.