Bangladesh's new cabinet headed by Sheikh Hasina as Prime Minister was sworn in in the President House here Tuesday evening.
Hasina will rule the country as prime minister for a second time after her party Awami League won a landslide victory in the country's ninth parliamentary election held on Dec. 29, 2008, bagging 230 seats out of all 300 parliament seats.
Here is the profile of Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina, 61, was in power from 1996 to 2001 and served as leader of the opposition in several parliaments including the last parliament dissolved in October 2006.
She was arrested on charges of corruption in July 2007 by the immediate past caretaker government who launched an anti-corruption drive but released on executive order in June 2008 and later she got bail from all the cases in November, which paved the way for her to participate in the election.
Hasina is the eldest daughter of Bangladesh's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who led the independence war against Pakistan in 1971.
In 1968, she was married to an eminent scientist, M.A. Wazed Miah. They have one son and one daughter living in the United States.
Hasina graduated from the Dhaka University. She was active in student politics while in college and university.
When her father Sheikh Mujib Rahman was assassinated on Aug. 15,1975, the assassins killed every member of his family they found in the house. Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana survived the carnage as they were in Germany at that time.
Hasina was forced to live in exile after the assassination of her father.
In 1981, she was elected President of the Bangladesh Awami League while still in political exile. She returned home from exile in 1981.
On June 23, 1996, Hasina was sworn in as prime minister of the country after her party Awami League and its allies won majority parliament seats in the country's seventh parliamentary election.
She was the second female prime minister in Bangladesh after Khaleda Zia since the country's independence.
Hasina is an avid reader of books and journals on international politics, literature and social welfare. She is the author of several books, "The Plight of The Street Children", "The Origin of Autocracy", "The Elimination of Poverty", "Some Thoughts", "People and democracy" and "Development for the Masses".
She is a member of a cultural organization called Culture and Literature Sangha and a founder member of the country's leading sports club Abahani Krira Chakra.
Source: Xinhua
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