Nahid Islam, a 26-year-old sociology student known for wearing a Bangladeshi flag tied across his forehead, became a prominent figure in the movement against government job quotas. This movement evolved into a campaign to oust Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who had been in power for 15 years.
Islam gained national attention in mid-July when he and other Dhaka University students were detained by police as protests turned deadly. The unrest, which resulted in nearly 300 deaths, many of them students, only subsided when Hasina resigned and fled to India on Monday.
Following her resignation, Islam and other student leaders were scheduled to meet with army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman at noon (0600 GMT) on Tuesday. Zaman had announced the formation of an interim government after Hasina’s departure.
Islam, who speaks calmly but firmly in public, stated that the students would not accept any government led or supported by the army, proposing Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as chief adviser. “Any government other than the one we recommended would not be accepted,” he asserted in a Facebook post early Tuesday.
On Monday, flanked by fellow student leaders, the bearded and stocky Islam addressed reporters: “We won’t betray the blood shed by the martyrs for our cause. We will create a new democratic Bangladesh through our promise of security of life, social justice, and a new political landscape.” He pledged to ensure that the country, with its population of 170 million, never returns to what he described as “Fascist rule” and urged students to protect the Hindu minority and their places of worship.
Born in Dhaka in 1998, Islam is married and has a younger brother, Nakib, who is a geography student. Their father is a teacher, and their mother is a homemaker. Nakib expressed pride in his brother’s resilience, recounting how Nahid was tortured by police but continued to fight for change.
Sabrina Karim, an associate professor of government at Cornell University specializing in political violence, called Monday a historic day for Bangladesh. “This might very well be the first successful Gen Z-led revolution,” she said, adding that there might be hope for a democratic transition, even with the military’s involvement.
