After weeks of civil unrest in Bangladesh — which resulted in the deaths of over 300 civilians and the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina — microfinance pioneer and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was last week sworn in as interim leader.
It marks a dramatic turn of events for Bangladesh’s beleaguered development sector, which witnessed violent crackdowns against human rights activists and civil society leaders during Hasina’s 15-year rule. Yunus himself, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for helping to lift thousands in Bangladesh out of poverty, had up until last week been facing a string of criminal charges, which supporters say were politically motivated.
Other members of the newly appointed administration include the previously imprisoned leader of a human rights organization, and an environmental campaigner whose husband was forcibly disappeared — one of an estimated 600 enforced disappearances, meaning abductions and detentions that are never accounted for, committed by the state since 2009.
About the author
Catherine Davison
Catherine Davison is an independent journalist based in Delhi, India, writing on issues at the intersection of health, gender, and the environment.
