SHEIKH Hasina鈥檚 mafia-style autocracy ended on 5 August 2024. However, in a Hasina-free Bangladesh, we cannot simply put all the blame on one person and claim innocence from culpability for acts and circumstances that led to the rise of the autocracy. People who ran the country for decades and the opportunists who maintained strong links with the corridors of power (and influence) cannot escape responsibility for what Bangladesh became on Hasina鈥檚 watch and what we are still writhing under.
It is true that human rights violations during the Hasina regime reached unprecedented levels in Bangladesh. She and her ministers and cronies also flagrantly pilfered state coffers and public funds. However, let鈥檚 turn our attention away from their human rights and financial crimes for a while.
How has Bangladesh been doing in general in the past half a century or so?
It may sound unbelievable, but the following is only a partial description of what Bangladesh became, or perhaps still is.
Corruption, rent-seeking and other forms of economic crime have become rampant in Bangladesh鈥檚 public offices. Honesty and efficiency are considered of little importance for public officials (politicians and civil servants). Many honest and efficient government servants would not be promoted, as they refused to pay (often exorbitant) bribes to their superiors to secure a promotion (or because they have the wrong political background).
Moreover, an honest officer is a misfit in an institutional environment where corruption is pervasive. As they are considered an impediment to corrupt practices, their crooked colleagues would go the extra mile to get them transferred to a remote area.
Long story short, moral rectitude in our country is not rewarded. It is punished.
Ours is a country where we don鈥檛 feel surprised by the news that a police officer can acquire so much ill-gotten wealth that they can own multiple resorts. It is no news that politicians and their cronies use black money to buy expensive properties in high-end countries.
On a separate note, our Dhaka airport is an interesting place to observe how those who sustain the financial health of Bangladesh are neglected and those who loot the country are given privileged treatment. Migrant workers who 鈥� through blood and sweat, and pain and suffering 鈥� keep our economy on a steady and stable track are often harassed at the time of both exit and arrival. Conversely, those who plunder our land and go on holiday to foreign destinations 鈥� and spend our money abroad 鈥� are saluted and attended to.
Accounts of the above and other aberrations and examples of structural damage to our country can go on and on.
Such a state of affairs prevailing in Bangladesh leads many of its bright minds to settle abroad and discourages others from returning and giving back and contributing to the well-being of their country. I am one of those who are having to regularly deal with the guilt of not being able to live with the people of my country and to serve them more directly.
Tasnim Jara is an exception.
A graduate of the prestigious Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, she studied medicine at Dhaka Medical College. She furthered her training in the field at the University of Oxford and was thriving as a healthcare professional and academic at Cambridge. Thus, she received the best of education and training in Bangladesh and Britain.
Like many others, Tasnim Jara could have stayed back and pursued a highly rewarding career in the UK. However, she chose to come back to Bangladesh and serve its people in a true sense. She prepared herself to bear with Dhaka鈥檚 (poor) living standards and with all the complaints that its inhabitants have about their city 鈥� all for the sake of her country and its people.
Given her academic accomplishments, experience and superb presentation skills (in both Bangla and English and in both oral and written), Tasnim Jara is best positioned to serve Bangladesh domestically and represent it internationally.
We all have our political views, and Tasnim Jara has hers. Being a senior leader of a political party, she is probably more political than many of us. However, transcending political divisions that exist in our country, it is perhaps safe to say that she is a national asset for our country.
But are we ready to appreciate her intellect, confidence and sense of altruism?
Bangladeshi youth, especially young women, who dream and work for a better Bangladesh were perhaps very pleased to see Tasnim Jara included in the Bangladeshi delegation to the 2025 UN General Assembly. She was the only woman (and perhaps the brightest) in the professor Yunus-led delegacy that went to the global forum to represent our country.
However, some New York-based Awami miscreants were unable to be happy and had a different agenda. They attacked Tasnim Jara and other Bangladeshi politicians upon their arrival at New York鈥檚 John F Kennedy International Airport on the evening of September 22, 2025. The Awami rascals singled out Tasnim Jara for vile sexist slurs. Against their sexist harassment, Tasnim Jara stood tall with her head held high. She faced the verbal vulgarity and aggressive behaviour on the part of those Awami men with an equanimity and grace that is worthy of a person of her stature.
The sexist mob assault on Tasnim Jara at JFK was an affront to the core values of gender egalitarianism and respect for women and for their right to participate in public life. The obscene verbal abuse and threats directed at her went beyond political rivalry. The language used to harass and intimidate her was blatantly sexist.
There are strong feminist organisations in Bangladesh that make statements and take to the streets to voice out their concerns about gender-related issues or to show their discontent about the marginality of women in society. Unfortunately, the vulgarity of the verbal assault on Tasnim Jara in New York has not elicited any strong response from the dominant feminist groups in Bangladesh.
Their silence about the verbal violence against Tasnim Jara rekindles the debate about their political linkages that I discussed in 鈥楽ilence over rape and feminist groups鈥� political link鈥� (2024). In that essay, I quoted Ashok Kumar, who said in his book听Women and Development听(2005): 鈥業n Bangladesh, the women鈥檚 movement is highly diverse. The largest associations are associated with political parties 鈥�. [T]heir autonomy in promoting gender-equity concerns in development policy is compromised by their association with the traditional parties.鈥�
Given this debate about the political bias of Bangladesh鈥檚 feminist groups, one can argue that they kept quiet about the sexual harassment at JFK against Tasnim Jara because of their clandestine linkages with the political party to which the attackers belong. Irrespective of the veracity or otherwise of this charge, the onus is on Dhaka-based feminist groups to prove that their activism is independent of any political affiliation.
Tasnim Jara is not simply an individual. She represents the hopes and aspirations of the Bangladeshi youth who are ready to make big sacrifices to bring post-Hasina Bangladesh to new heights. If Tasnim Jara succeeds, Bangladesh will succeed. If she is forced to regret her decision to have left Britain to serve Bangladesh, that may dampen the desire of other Tasnim Jaras to come back (after higher education abroad) and serve the country.
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Dr Md Mahmudul Hasan is a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia.
