
After a Revolution, a Move Toward Politics as Usual in Bangladesh
Some of the students whose protests kick-started a revolution in Bangladesh last year and prompted the ouster of the country's authoritarian leader, Sheikh Hasina, are now taking a more conventional route to pursue their vision for the country: They have started a political party.
At a rally in Dhaka, the capital, on Friday, some of the former student leaders announced the creation of the National Citizens Party, which they said would pursue a 'centrist' political ideology. Although membership is open to all, the party will target students, thousands of whom joined the 2024 protests but many of whom have since returned to their normal lives.
Leading the new party will be Nahid Islam, a 27-year-old university graduate who helped lead the call for Ms. Hasina's resignation after a 15-year rule during which democratic freedoms eroded amid allegations of corruption and rigged elections.
After Ms. Hasina's ouster, Mr. Islam joined the interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, which seeks to restore order in Bangladesh and pave the way for free and fair elections. The country has not set a date, but Mr. Yunus has said a vote could happen by December.
This week, Mr. Islam resigned from the government, saying that it was 'now necessary for me to stand with the students and the people to help build a new political force.'
The hope is that taking a political route will allow student voices to be heard as Bangladesh tries to build a robust democracy. An umbrella group called Students Against Discrimination, which represented most of the protesters, will continue as a nonpolitical entity. Students at a news conference held at Dhaka University on Wednesday, where they announced their new political party. Credit... Munir Uz Zaman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Earlier discussions about a student political party had drawn criticism from a rival. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which became the country's largest political group after the effective disappearance of Ms. Hasina's Awami League, complained the new party had an unfair advantage since its leader had been part of the interim government.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the BNP leader, said he welcomed the formation of a student party, 'but that does not mean you can stay in the government, enjoy all government benefits, and form your party at the same time.'
Two other student leaders who had joined the interim government, Mahfuj Alam and Asif Mahmud, have said they will remain in their posts and not join the National Citizens Party. Mr. Mahmud recently said that they couldn't be affiliated with any political party since they were helping oversee the democratic transition.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
5 takeaways from a major new report on religion around the world
This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night. When people hear that researching religion is part of my job, they often ask me very specific questions about faith-related issues that have been in the news. After I disappoint them by not immediately knowing the answers, I turn to Google for help. My job has made me a search engine expert, not a religion expert. The questions that still trip me up even when I've got a strong internet connection are about the religious makeup of faraway countries. It's hard for me to quickly find info about religious life in the Czech Republic or New Zealand and then talk about what that info means for the athlete or politician who's grabbing headlines in the U.S. But now, I've got an exciting new tool in my trivia tool belt. On Monday, Pew Research Center released an interactive website that shows the religious makeup of nearly every country in the world in a single (very large) table. Once you're on the page, it takes only a few seconds to confirm that New Zealand was 40.3% Christian in 2020 or that the Czech Republic is dominated by religious 'nones.' Pew's interactive table was released alongside a new report discussing how the global religious landscape changed from 2010 to 2020. Based on more than 2,700 censuses and surveys, the report provides an in-depth look at 201 countries and territories — and plenty of fodder for conversations with your friends. Here are five key takeaways from Pew's new analysis of the global religious landscape. Christianity is the world's largest faith group, but it's not keeping pace with global population growth. In 2010, 30.6% of the world identified as Christian. By 2020, that figure had fallen to 28.8%. Islam is the fastest growing religious group. 'The number of Muslims increased by 347 million (from 2010 to 2020) — more than all other religions combined,' researchers wrote. Sub-Saharan Africa is now the region of the world where most Christians live. In 2010, Europe held that title. As of 2020, the United States has the second-largest number of religiously unaffiliated residents. China has the most. The growth of Islam from 2010 to 2020 was mostly due to natural population growth, while the decline of Christianity stemmed, in large part, from religious switching. 'Religious 'switching' — especially people shedding their religious identity after having been raised as Christians — explains much of the unaffiliated population's growth between 2010 and 2020," Pew reported. Americans are divided over religious freedom. The Supreme Court? Not as much How 'Jeopardy!' can save us all, according to Ken Jennings The Supreme Court's surprising decision day This top running back says he believes in God, not the so-called 'Madden curse' A religious school is facing pushback for its partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Hidden Christianity is a unique form of Christianity practiced on some of Japan's rural islands. It gets its name from the fact that its earliest practitioners really were hiding their faith to avoid persecution. 'Hidden Christians were forced to hide all visible signs of their religion after the 1614 ban on Christianity and the expulsion of foreign missionaries. Households took turns hiding precious ritual objects and hosting the secret services that celebrated both faith and persistence,' according to The Associated Press. Early practitioners disguised their Christian icons by making them appear to be Buddhist. Even after it was safe to be openly Christian again, many families continued these secretive practices, in part because they wanted to honor loved ones who'd risked their lives and in part because they didn't fit in with mainstream Christians, the AP reported. 'Many Hidden Christians rejected Catholicism after the persecution ended because Catholic priests refused to recognize them as real Christians unless they agreed to be rebaptized and abandon the Buddhist altars that their ancestors used,' the article said. Hidden Christianity may soon be just a memory in Japan, since most current practitioners are quite old and most young people who grew up with the traditions have moved to cities and either don't want to or can't access the gatherings. A controversial research project featuring faith leaders using psychedelic drugs was released last month after a long delay. The report showed that nearly all of the members of the clergy who took part described their experiences with psilocybin as some of the most spiritually significant of their lives, but health and religion experts don't agree on what type of additional research or policy proposals that finding should inspire, according to Religion News Service. Which groups face the most discrimination in the United States? Pew Research Center recently asked Americans to weigh in, and the survey report offers an in-depth look at how people's political views influence their thoughts about discrimination. My Deseret News colleague Krysyan Edler recently wrote about the inspiring life of Caroline Klein, the chief communications officer for Smith Entertainment Group. After being diagnosed with cancer in her thirties, Klein committed to living every day like there might not be a tomorrow. 'Nothing about my situation is sad to me, but I want to make sure that when I'm gone, I've left people with a lot of great memories that bring them joy, too,' she said. After years of daydreaming about getting back into tennis, I finally started a summer tennis class on Saturday. It felt so good! Take this as the nudge you need to do that thing you've been dreaming about.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Wilders isolated as Dutch election sniping starts
The chances of Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders becoming prime minister dropped on Tuesday after a key potential coalition party ruled out working with him, calling him an "incredibly unreliable partner". Wilders stunned the political establishment in the Netherlands last week by bringing down a fragile four-way governing coalition in a row over immigration. Fresh elections are now set for October 29. Wilders is hoping to repeat his shock success from November 2023, when his far-right Freedom Party (PVV) came out on top. But the fragmented nature of Dutch politics means parties need to find two or even three coalition partners to form a government. Wilders's largest coalition partner after the November vote was the liberal VVD but party leader Dilan Yesilgoz launched a fierce broadside against her former colleague. "This country needs mature leadership. We will no longer work with him," Yesilgoz said in an interview with De Telegraaf daily. "He puts his personal self-interest above the national interest. He will never take responsibility for the country," added Yesilgoz. Latest opinion polls suggest a close three-way race between the PVV, the VVD and a Green/Left grouping led by former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans. Wilders lashed out on X saying that Yesilgoz "wanted to destroy the Netherlands, along with the left". "That means even more asylum seekers and Islam," he claimed. De Telegraaf wrote: "Now that the VVD is also slamming shut the door, a government with Wilders's party is moving further out of sight." "Looking at the current polls, there are too few parties available to form a majority cabinet that have not previously declared the PVV taboo." - 'Squandered his chance' - Wilders abruptly pulled his PVV out of the coalition on Wednesday, saying the government was too slow to enact the "strictest-ever" asylum policy that was agreed after the elections. He came up with his own 10-point plan, which included closing borders to asylum seekers, and deporting dual nationals convicted of a crime. A crisis meeting between the leaders of the four parties broke up in acrimony after just minutes, as Wilders pulled the plug. Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he would stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet could be formed. The government collapse sparked political chaos in the European Union's fifth-largest economy. It came as the Netherlands prepares to host a summit of NATO leaders later this month. Yesilgoz noted that Wilders had done something similar before, when he pulled out of a deal with then prime minister Mark Rutte in 2012 over austerity measures. "In 2012, he walked out, while our country needed stability and leadership amid an economic crisis. "Thirteen years later, little has changed," she wrote to VVD members. "It is still his style to walk out like a coward." "As far as I am concerned, Geert Wilders has excluded himself from government. He has once again squandered his chance and once again let his voters down," Yesilgoz added. However, she hit back at suggestions that shunning Wilders meant joining forces with Timmermans and his left-wing grouping. "The commitment of the left is miles away from what the Netherlands needs now. The VVD envisions a completely different Netherlands," she said. ric/gil
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
She was tortured, yet she still fights for freedom
Editor's note: This is the second in a five-part series on the price of freedom, by exploring the work and experience of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh. Deseret News Opinion Editor Jay Evensen has known Yunus since 1997, when the world leader first visited Utah. Evensen traveled to Dhaka to speak again with Yunus, entrepreneurs, politicians in the country, and even revolutionaries seeking change, to understand the risks Yunus is enduring and why peace and opportunity in Bangladesh are so important to the United States. DHAKA, BANGLADESH — As I sit across the desk from Aparna Roy Das, the 49-year-old whose political career, like that of her father, has been marred by broken bones, torture and harassment, the question seems so obvious it practically leaps from the walls. Why do you choose to be a politician when there are such dangers? Just a few minutes later, as we discuss whether rival parties and factions might disrupt upcoming elections with more violence, the chants of protesters begin to grow outside the window behind where Das sits at her desk, a window covered in blinds, here in the capital city of Bangladesh. These chants quickly become loud enough to interrupt our discussion. I feel compelled to ask my interpreter, Tathira Baatul, a young research assistant and aspiring journalist, 'Is that a good protest?' 'I'm not sure,' she answers. Such is the rough-and-tumble world of politics in Bangladesh. At the time of this interview, the party to which Das belongs, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, was supportive of interim leader Muhammad Yunus' efforts to reform the nation before holding elections. Today, the BNP is restless, urging Yunus to hold elections quickly, ostensibly because it is expected to win popular support. But as the chants rise during our interview in February, Das has just described for us how, for 15 years, she could not use this office because police, presumably operating under Hasina's orders, had destroyed its contents. She also had been tortured. 'Both of my knees were broken by the police during the first strike in 2010,' she said, according to a transcript of our interview, translated and provided to me by Baatul after the meeting. 'And since then, I have been tortured multiple times in police custody and in court. They tortured me from my legs to my head. 'Even now, because of that torture, I am physically unwell, though in terms of mental strength, I remain resilient. I was never able to go abroad for treatment.' She wasn't the first in her family to endure such punishment for political activism. Her mother died last Dec. 29, she tells me, 'because of 17 years of oppression.' 'She spent those years alone, visiting prisons, as someone from our family was always behind bars. She fought against the administration by herself, and after enduring so much, she suffered a stroke.' On the many times her father was arrested, she used to pray he was in jail, because if not, it might mean he had been made to disappear, as too many were during those years. 'He is a freedom fighter, but the kind of brutality he faced was unimaginable,' she said. 'He had even said, holding his chest like Abu Sayed, 'If they are to kill my people, kill me first.'' Sayed was a well-known student activist who was among the first to die during the uprising last summer that resulted in a full-scale revolution in Bangladesh. That resulted in Hasina fleeing to India, after which the students convinced Yunus, Nobel laureate and 'banker to the poor,' to head an interim government. He leads it to this day, despite mounting pressures from political parties and the military. And Das now serves as assistant secretary for marginal manpower development affairs within the BNP. But the question remains. After watching both parents suffer physically and mentally for so many years; after seeing former prime minister and Bangladesh's 'Mother of Democracy,' Begum Khaleda Zia, endure torture; and after having her own bones broken by the blows of state police, is it worth it to continue? Why not pick a safer profession? First, she was born into a political family, Das said. Her father, Gayeshwar Chandra Ray, is a standing committee member of the BNP. 'I have witnessed these things from a young age, as I have seen my parents engaged in politics. Therefore, it was never a question of whether I would join or not,' she said. Later, she grows a bit more thoughtful. 'There is democracy and the right to speak, but this was not the case in our country,' Das said. 'My father endured so much torture, and after he was injured, we didn't know where the police had kept him. It was an extremely frightening day for me because three members of my family were in the hospital, and I couldn't find my father. 'Many people told me not to look for him, because they would arrest me too and torture me, but I wasn't afraid. I was always in the streets. Now, even if I see any injustice in the country, especially from those who want to take everything from Bangladesh, I will protest against them in any way, shape or form that I can. 'If the torture had not happened to my father, but to someone else, I would have done the same thing.' Pericles is quoted as saying, 'Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.' That is especially true for many in Bangladesh, a nation of 171.5 million people that fills a geographical area about the size of Iowa. Since it won independence from Pakistan in 1971, it has struggled to establish democratic traditions, suffering assassinations, coups and despotism. To much of the world, it seems remote and inconsequential. Yet hope flickers strong in politicians such as Das and others who seem strengthened through trials. It is a hope from which the world could learn. It is a hope reflected in the easy smiles I encountered in villages outside Dhaka. It is a hope bolstered by belief, and it is one that has me reflecting on the fragility of freedom. The Bangladeshi economy has grown, despite hardships. The World Bank said Bangladesh had reached 'lower-middle income status' by 2015. GDP grew by 6.4% between 2010 and 2023, and the poverty rate fell from 11.8% to 5% during roughly the same period. Still, that's an international poverty level based on only $2.15 per day. The moderate poverty rate, measured at $3.65 per day in 2017 dollars, is at 30%. Even with rising prosperity, hunger and low wages can bring politics close to everyone. When elections come again, the nation will learn much about itself and how far it has come. It will learn whether the Awami League, the political party allied with now-deposed former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, intends to be disruptive, or even violent. The party has been outlawed while investigations proceed into violence committed during student protests last summer. Das, who believes interim government leader Yunus has done much to reinstate basic freedoms, answers easily as I ask her what she hopes Bangladesh will be like in 10 or 20 years. 'I want Bangladesh to be a place where everyone can eat, vote and sleep peacefully,' she says. 'I want our daughters to be able to go outside without fear. I dream of a beautiful, just Bangladesh, one where we don't have to live at the cost of others' blood. 'This Bangladesh, which we gained through the sacrifices of millions, must rise again. I want justice for the massacre that occurred at the border between India and Bangladesh. My neighbor should be my friend, but our neighbor harms us. We seek freedom from that harm. 'Above all conspiracies, I want a beautiful Bangladesh.' This is the real answer to the question. This is why she serves. And if that day comes, no one could say people like Das haven't paid the price for it. It takes only minutes for Das and her colleagues in the room to determine that the protests we hear on the street outside are from her supporters. We are in no danger. And yet, I am left pondering how I felt for the brief moment when I didn't know. How would it feel to know they were, indeed, hostile, as Das has had to face so often in her life?