Bangladesh’s Gen Z revolution - How student protests toppled Sheikh Hasina | DW Documentary

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country on 5 August 2024 after spending almost 16 years in office. Hasina had ordered a violent crackdown on student protests, but ultimately the uprising led to the toppling of the authoritarian leader.

When Bangladesh’s longest serving prime minister came to power, she awakened hopes with her drive to free millions of people from extreme poverty by liberalizing the economy. But the country’s ‘Iron Lady’ became increasingly autocratic, and created a personality cult based around her long-dead father Sheikh Mujibur, the ‘Father of the Nation’, and forced political opponents and critical journalists and artists into exile.

The protests began with student demonstrations against a controversial government job quota. Gen Z college students managed to organize broad resistance to the system reserving 30% of civil service posts for the descendants of freedom fighters from the 1971 War of Independence. In the ensuing crackdown, more than 600 people died, many more were injured, and many disappeared.

What will it take to rebuild the nation after the July Revolution? This documentary film follows the leaders of the student movement, members of the interim government and victims of the former regime.

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