In the long and turbulent history of Bangladesh, no family has been more politically consequential — or carried more personal loss — than the family of Sheikh Hasina. The eldest daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, who survived the 15 August 1975 assassination in which her father, mother, three brothers, two sisters-in-law, an uncle, and several cousins were killed by army officers, who lived in political exile in India for six years, and who returned to lead the Awami League for nearly four decades — she served as Prime Minister of Bangladesh for a total of 20 years across multiple terms, the longest tenure of any Prime Minister in the country's history, before being forced from office in August 2024. Behind every public chapter sits one of the most documented family stories of the modern subcontinent: a Bengali nationalist father who became Bangabandhu, a quietly steadfast mother killed alongside him, a sister who survived the same massacre, a nuclear-scientist husband who supported her through three decades of politics, and two children who have built international careers in technology and autism advocacy.

The Family's Roots: Tungipara, Gopalganj

The Sheikh family of Bangladesh belongs to the Bengali Sunni Muslim community with deep roots in the village of Tungipara, in the Gopalganj district of southern Bangladesh — a low-lying riverine area east of the Padma. The family had been local landholders and minor political figures in the area for generations.

Hasina herself was born on 28 September 1947 in Tungipara, just six weeks after the Partition of British India.

Her Father: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — Bangabandhu, Father of the Nation

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975) was the founding father of Bangladesh — the leader of the Bengali language movement of the 1950s, the founder of the Awami League as a Bengali nationalist party, the architect of the 1971 Liberation War that produced an independent Bangladesh, and the country's first Prime Minister and first President. He is referred to in Bangladesh as Bangabandhu ("Friend of Bengal") and Jatir Pita ("Father of the Nation").

He was assassinated, along with most of his family, in the August 1975 military coup at his residence at Dhanmondi 32, Dhaka.

Her Mother: Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib

Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, born 8 August 1930 in Tungipara, married Mujib in 1938 (an arranged marriage when she was eight and he was eighteen, which was formalised when she came of age). She was, by every account of those who knew her, the central anchor of the Sheikh household through Mujib's many years in British and Pakistani prisons.

She was killed alongside her husband on 15 August 1975.

Her Siblings

Hasina is the eldest of five siblings:

  • Sheikh Hasina (b. 28 September 1947) — Prime Minister of Bangladesh
  • Sheikh Kamal (5 August 1949 – 15 August 1975) — eldest brother; killed in the 1975 massacre
  • Sheikh Jamal (28 April 1954 – 15 August 1975) — middle brother; killed in 1975
  • Sheikh Russel (18 October 1964 – 15 August 1975) — youngest brother; killed at age 10
  • Sheikh Rehana (b. 13 September 1955) — younger sister; survived the massacre as she was abroad at the time

Both Kamal and Jamal had recently married; Kamal's wife Sultana Kamal and Jamal's wife Parveen Jamal Rosy were also killed in the 1975 attack.

Of the immediate family at the residence on 15 August 1975, only Hasina and Rehana survived, because both were in West Germany visiting Hasina's husband Wazed at the time.

Her Sister: Sheikh Rehana — The Quiet Sister

Sheikh Rehana, the only other surviving immediate family member, has built a private life in London, where she lives most of the year. Her daughter Tulip Siddiq is a British Labour Member of Parliament (Hampstead and Highgate; previously Hampstead and Kilburn) — making her a niece of Sheikh Hasina and a notable British-Bangladeshi political figure in her own right. Tulip served briefly in Keir Starmer's government in 2024–2025.

Her Husband: M. A. Wazed Miah — The Nuclear Physicist

Mohammad Ahmad Wazed Miah, born 16 February 1942 in Lalpur, Natore, was a nuclear physicist with the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. He met Hasina at university; the two married on 17 November 1968 in a quiet ceremony arranged by their families.

Wazed remained a working scientist throughout Hasina's long political career. He published research and built one of the more respected scientific public-service careers in Bangladesh. He died on 9 May 2009.

Their Children: Sajeeb Wazed Joy and Saima Wazed

Hasina and Wazed had two children:

Sajeeb Wazed, popularly known as Joy, born 27 July 1971 in Dhaka, is a computer scientist and businessman who has served as Hasina's ICT advisor and is widely regarded as one of the architects of the Digital Bangladesh initiative. He studied at Harvard's Kennedy School and has been the family's principal public voice during Hasina's recent exile in India.

Saima Wazed, born 9 December 1972 in Dhaka, is a clinical psychologist and autism advocate. She has been chair of the World Health Organization's South-East Asia Region since 2024, and previously chaired the Bangladesh National Advisory Committee on Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. She is one of the most internationally recognised Bangladeshi public-health professionals.

The Sheikh Family Tree at a Glance

Family Origins

  • Bengali Sunni Muslim community
  • Ancestral village: Tungipara, Gopalganj district

Parents

  • Father: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975) — founding father of Bangladesh; first PM/President; Bangabandhu
  • Mother: Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib (8 August 1930 – 15 August 1975)

Siblings

  • Sheikh Hasina (b. 28 September 1947) — PM of Bangladesh
  • Sheikh Kamal (1949 – 1975), killed
  • Sheikh Jamal (1954 – 1975), killed
  • Sheikh Russel (1964 – 1975), killed at age 10
  • Sheikh Rehana (b. 13 September 1955) — survived

Niece (Rehana's daughter)

  • Tulip Siddiq (b. 16 September 1982) — British Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate

Sheikh Hasina

  • Born 28 September 1947, Tungipara, Gopalganj
  • Eden Mohila College & University of Dhaka (BA, 1973)
  • Exile in India 1975–1981
  • President, Awami League, since February 1981
  • PM of Bangladesh: 23 June 1996 – 15 July 2001; 6 January 2009 – 5 August 2024
  • Forced from office and into exile in India on 5 August 2024 following student-led mass protests

Husband: M. A. Wazed Miah

  • Born 16 February 1942, Lalpur, Natore
  • Nuclear physicist; Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission
  • Married Hasina on 17 November 1968
  • Died 9 May 2009

Children

  • Sajeeb Wazed (Joy) (b. 27 July 1971) — Harvard KSG; ICT advisor; Digital Bangladesh architect
  • Saima Wazed (b. 9 December 1972) — clinical psychologist; WHO South-East Asia Regional Director (2024–present)

The Two Eras in Power

Hasina returned from Indian exile in May 1981 to take over the Awami League. She served as Prime Minister from June 1996 to July 2001, and again continuously from January 2009 to August 2024 — making her, at fifteen-plus consecutive years, the longest continuously-serving Prime Minister in South Asian history.

Her government oversaw two decades of consistent GDP growth, the rise of Bangladesh's garments-export economy, the Padma Bridge project, the introduction of universal primary education, and a vast expansion of digital infrastructure under the "Digital Bangladesh" initiative led in part by her son Sajeeb.

In August 2024, after weeks of student-led mass protests over quota reforms in government jobs, she was forced to leave office and fled by helicopter to India on 5 August 2024. She has remained there since.

What the Sheikh Family Story Teaches Us

The Sheikh family story is among the most extraordinary in twentieth- and twenty-first-century South Asia. A founding father killed alongside his wife, three sons, two daughters-in-law, and a ten-year-old child in a single night in 1975. Two daughters who survived only because they were on a trip to West Germany. A nuclear-scientist husband. Children who grew up as orphaned cousins and a sister abroad. A 36-year political career built on a 24-hour family massacre. A niece in the British Parliament.

For every family — large or small, famous or otherwise — the Sheikh Hasina story carries the same lesson. The losses in a family are often the load-bearing facts of who the rest of the family becomes. The members lost on 15 August 1975 are still part of the Sheikh family tree, still part of who Hasina is. The people you lost in your own family are still part of who you are. Write them all down — the living and the lost. The fullest tree is the one that holds them both.

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