On February 1, 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) made a striking announcement. Saima Wazed, the 52-year-old daughter of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, assumed the role of Regional Director of the South-East Asia Region at the WHO's Delhi headquarters. This significant appointment marked her as the first Bangladeshi and only the second woman to hold this prestigious position.
Saima's journey to this role began when member countries of the WHO South-East Asia region nominated her during the Regional Committee session in New Delhi on November 1, 2023. Her appointment was then confirmed by the WHO Executive Board in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 23, 2024. In her new capacity, Saima oversees international health efforts across 11 countries with a population exceeding 2 billion, from the heart of Delhi.
While Saima was taking charge in Delhi, her mother, Sheikh Hasina, was making a dramatic exit from Bangladesh, landing at Hindon Airbase in Ghaziabad. Reports suggest that despite being in close proximity, the mother-daughter duo did not meet during this period.
A psychologist by profession, Saima has made remarkable contributions to the field of neurodevelopmental disorders. Since 2012, she has chaired Bangladesh's National Advisory Committee on Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Her prior experience includes serving as an advisor to the WHO Director-General on mental health and autism.
Saima’s personal life is equally distinguished. Her husband, Khandaker Masur Hussain Mitu, hails from a prominent political family in Bangladesh. However, little is publicly known about him. Saima's late father, M. A. Wazed, was a renowned physicist and former chairman of Bangladesh's Atomic Energy Commission. He authored several books on physics and had stints at the Indian Atomic Energy Commission in New Delhi. Wazed passed away at 67 and was laid to rest in his ancestral village in Pirganj, Rangpur, Bangladesh.
Her brother, Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed, is a controversial figure in Bangladesh. Based in the United States, Sajeeb is a businessman and a member of the Bangladesh Awami League. He has been an advisor to the Prime Minister on information and communication technology and is known for his ambitious but largely unfulfilled Digital Bangladesh initiative. Sajeeb's tenure has not been without controversy, including allegations of corruption linked to a $300 million transaction, which he has vigorously denied.
