Bangladesh’s Islamist leader seeks power in post-uprising vote

2026-02-06 - 05:06

Shafiqur Rahman has been a long-time party activist, running first for parliament in 1996, then again in 2001 and 2018. (EPA Images pic) DHAKA: The leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party and prime ministerial hopeful Shafiqur Rahman has contested three elections and lost. This time, he hopes to finally win. Voters in the Muslim-majority nation will head to the polls on Thursday for the first time since a 2024 uprising toppled Sheikh Hasina, who in her 15 years as prime minister crushed Islamist movements. Now, Rahman, a 67-year-old doctor and preacher, hopes his 11-party alliance could deliver him victory, worrying critics and minorities who fear an Islamist win could come at their expense. “I stand for moral renewal in society,” Rahman vowed in election promises. If successful, the former political prisoner could form the first Islamist-led government in constitutionally secular Bangladesh. Dressed entirely in white, including a flowing white beard, he cuts a distinctive figure on the campaign trail – where his Jamaat-e-Islami party has put forward only male candidates. “Good governance is the foundation of stability, peace and prosperity,” he said, pledging rule-based and corruption-free leadership. Ex-prime minister Hasina, who is close to the Hindu-nationalist government of neighbouring India, went after Islamist supporters and cracked down on extremists, killing scores and arresting hundreds. Since her fall, key Islamist leaders have been released from prison. ‘Locks’ and brooms Born in 1958 in the northeastern district of Moulvibazar, Rahman has been a long-time party activist, running first for parliament in 1996, then again in 2001 and 2018. His wife, Ameena Shafiq, is also a doctor who was selected for one of the seats in parliament reserved for women in 2018. Their two daughters and son are also doctors. As a party member and then leader, or “Ameer”, Rahman’s determined push for power has sparked concern. Bangladesh has long been led by powerful women, including Hasina and her long-time rival, the late three-time prime minister Khaleda Zia. Comments Rahman made last year about women’s employment, saying he wanted to encourage stay-at-home mothers, provoked a backlash. “We don’t want to lock women at home – we don’t have enough money to buy the locks,” he said at a rally. In January, broom-waving women in Dhaka marched on the streets to symbolically “sweep” him away after a social media post from Rahman had argued women being “pushed out of home in the name of modernity” was “nothing but another form of prostitution”. Rahman later claimed he had been “hacked” and