After Toppling Sheikh Hasina, Young Bangladeshis Turn Back To Old Guard

Tasnim Jara, a doctor who returned from Britain to join the NCP but quit because of the Islamist alliance, is now contesting as an independent, determined to help foster what she calls a "genuinely new political culture".

Dhaka University student Sadman Mujtaba Rafid defied his parents and police to join protests that toppled former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, convinced the rallies were essential to ensure democracy prevailed over dynastic rule.

But ahead of the February 12 parliamentary election – the first since the upheaval – some of Rafid's optimism has faded. 

"We dreamt of a country where all people, regardless of gender, race, religion would have equal opportunity," the 25-year-old said. "We expected policy changes and reforms, but it is far away from what we dreamt of."

Tens of thousands of young Bangladeshis, frustrated by years of repression and a lack of jobs and economic opportunity under Hasina's rule, poured into the streets in 2024, eager for radical change and a "New Bangladesh".

But while the elections will deliver a government without Hasina for the first time since 2008, there has been no major reform and no new viable alternative party has emerged, according to many, leaving the battle for government mostly between former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami.