DR. ALI AL-GHAMDY It can be argued that South Asia has produced the largest number of women leaders in the world. Notable names in the list of South Asian female prime ministers include Sri Lanka's Sirimavo Bandaranaike, India's Indira Gandhi, Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto and Bangladesh's Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. However, it is important to note that each of these leaders emerged from male-dominated societies and had close ties with male leaders. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, for example, the world's first female prime minister, succeeded her husband Solomon Bandaranaike as the prime minister of Sri Lanka. However, she did not play a significant political role in the country prior to the death of her husband. When Solomon Bandaranaike was assassinated in 1959, the ruling political party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, was in turmoil and Sirimavo was put forward as the legitimate successor to her husband's party leadership. This was done for political and social reasons as well as to gain public sympathy. Sirimavo was elected president of the party and then became prime minister. She continued in power until she was defeated by J. R. Jayewardene. She then became president of Sri Lanka, and later she was again elected prime minister while her daughter served as president. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of India's great politician and the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Indira came from a family with a strong political background. Her first contact with politics was as a child when she received letters from her father who was being held in prison by the British as a political detainee. Those letters were later published as a book titled “Glimpses of World History.” She married Feroze Gandhi, who was a member of the Indian parliament. After India's independence, Nehru became the country's prime minister. Eventually, Indira was appointed minister of information and broadcasting and went on to win the election and became the prime minister of India. She remained in power until her defeat in the 1977 general elections. Two years later she won the election again and returned to power as prime minister until she was assassinated in 1984. Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto was the daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who became the prime minister of Pakistan in 1973. He was in power until he was ousted by a military coup led by the army chief General Zia-ul-Haq, who then ruled the country until his mysterious death in a plane crash. In the succeeding election, Benazir won and became the third female prime minister in the South Asian region. After Benazir, the next female prime minister from the region was Begum Khaleda Zia, the widow of the president and former army chief Ziaur Rahman, who ruled Bangladesh from 1977 to 1981. She came to power by winning the elections that were held after the fall of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad's government. The final name on the list is Sheikh Hasina, the current prime minister of Bangladesh. She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder of Bangladesh. Hasina won the parliamentary elections of 1996 and became prime minister after defeating Begum Khaleda Zia. In subsequent elections, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by Khaleda Zia, was victorious and Zia ruled the country until the next elections, when Bangladesh was rocked by unprecedented political turmoil. As a result, all major political parties agreed to hold general elections under a caretaker government, and the succeeding election was won by Awamy League leader Sheikh Hasina. Her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all of her other family members, except for Hasina and her sister, were killed in a massacre perpetrated by some army officials. Hasina and her sister only escaped the massacre because they were outside the country at the time. After the end of Hasina's term, a debate about whether or not to hold elections under a caretaker government began. While Hasina was against holding elections under a caretaker government, her rival Begum Khaleda felt otherwise. As a result the army then declared an emergency, and appointed an interim caretaker government. It also detained major political party leaders, including Begum Khaleda and Sheikh Hasina. When elections were held again after two years, Hasina won and abolished the caretaker government. The opposition threatened to boycott the upcoming election unless the government agreed to hold it under a caretaker government, and this issue is now a major controversy among political parties and the media in the country. — Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdy is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at [email protected]
