Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a five-part series on the price of freedom, by exploring the work and experience of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh. Deseret News Opinion Editor Jay Evensen has known Yunus since 1997, when the world leader first visited Utah. Evensen traveled to Dhaka to speak again with Yunus, entrepreneurs, politicians in the country, and even revolutionaries seeking change to understand the risks Yunus is enduring and why peace and opportunity in Bangladesh are so important to the United States.
- What is the price of freedom? We went to Bangladesh to find out
- She was tortured, yet she still fights for freedom
- Finding entrepreneurs among the very poor
- A twist on capitalism
DHAKA, BANGLADESH — Mahfuj Alam has broad and ambitious hopes for the future of Bangladesh.
It’s encouraging to hear it, and to know he’s not alone. Many of the people I spoke to during a recent visit to this South Asian country expressed optimism about the future, and especially the prospect of free and fair elections — something they have been denied for 15 years.
This is especially good news for the United States, which has long worked with this important ally in South Asia to cooperate on trade and other important matters, such as regional security and counter terrorism. Freedom and prosperity in Bangladesh would strike a blow against tyranny, while shining a bright light in a troubled part of the world and putting pressure on neighboring countries to do the same.
Many of Bangladesh’s leaders speak of the past with sorrow and anger. Turn the conversation to the future and they light up.
Alam’s opinion, in particular, carries considerable weight. At the age of 30, he is considered one of the chief architects of the revolutionary uprising last summer that led to the overthrow of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and the installation of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as the nation’s interim leader. In February, Alam was named adviser to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Yunus, known as the “banker to the poor” after establishing a bank that offers unsecured loans to impoverished Bangladeshis as part of a program to teach them entrepreneurship and self-sustainability, is working toward holding free and fair elections in April of 2026.
He has faced mounting pressures to hold those elections sooner. Within the last few weeks he briefly threatened to resign. Sources said his cabinet members talked him out of it. They also said the nation’s voting rolls are a mess, which is a main reason why elections can’t be held yet.
Until free and fair elections are held, and until the winners of that election establish important freedoms and reforms Yunus has proposed, Bangladesh’s future will remain unsettled.
Many people, Americans in particular, are unaware of this. But the free world should hope Bangladesh settles itself correctly, soon.
Yunus is a friend of Utah who has visited many times and spoken at venues from the Alta Club to BYU. Now, as the interim leader of Bangladesh (his official title is Chief Adviser to the Government), he faces many challenges, including unexpected new ones from the United States.
President Donald Trump has cut funding to programs that help the nation deal with concerns over health and poverty, and he has threatened tariffs that might devastate Bangladesh’s struggling economy.
Mahfuj Alam, the revolutionary activist, is acutely aware of these dangers, as well. But he stays optimistic, even in the face of American-imposed problems that might make some people nervous.
“People want to grow,” he told me via an audio interview on WhatsApp. “Our population is feeling unity and strength. The political process of Bangladesh will pave the way for economic prosperity.”
With freedom comes worries
The New York Times recently reported that radical Islamic extremists are sensing an opportunity as the nation transitions to a more pluralistic society that allows for greater religious freedom.
Alam and others say it may be tempting to overstate the momentum of such a movement. In the days since the revolution, Bangladesh has been the subject of more than a few worries that many say are either false or exaggerated.
One of those is the persistent accusation that, under Yunus’ leadership, Hindu minorities, which make up about 8% of the population, are being oppressed or violently attacked. Many I spoke with blame Hasina for orchestrating these rumors from her exile in India. Others also blame Hindu nationalist groups.
Credible reports tell of attacks against Hindus in various parts of the country, especially toward the end of 2024.
In an interview with Yunus at the Jumuna Guest House, near his official residence in Dhaka, he acknowledged to me that some crimes have occurred, especially during the chaos that followed the revolution. But he strongly denied any involvement from his government. Much of what happened during the revolution was politically motivated, rather than religiously motivated, he said.
His press secretary, Shafiqul Alam, said perpetrators of crimes are being held accountable. More than 100 people have been arrested in connection with crimes committed during that time and after, he said.
In my contact with numerous Hindus, including a visit with several Hindu women in the town of Gopaldi and in a meeting with a prominent Hindu politician with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, all denied feeling victimized or persecuted by the government since the revolution.
Yunus said he wants all people to feel equally protected by the nation’s constitution.
“The constitution gives me all rights, guarantees my rights; ensures my rights,” he said. “That’s what I want.”
Tug and pull of democracy
On Aug. 8 last year, the day Yunus was sworn in, the BBC World Service invited me on its morning Newsday radio program to discuss the challenges of his new position. I said it would be interesting to watch how a man so principled in his plans to end poverty would navigate the “tug and pull and the compromises that are necessary” to operate a newly hatched democracy.
As it turns out, this has happened in unexpected ways, with major challenges from the United States.
Early in his second term, President Trump began dismantling the United States Agency for International Development program, or USAID, and it withdrew from the World Health Organization. USAID was contributing to more than 100 programs in Bangladesh, including those involved in fighting the spread of communicable diseases.
An editorial in the Dhaka Tribune on Feb. 28 noted that the withdrawal from the World Health Organization threatens funding to fight or research “tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and maternal health.” The U.S. was the largest donor of COVID-19 vaccines to WHO, and “played a significant role in helping Bangladesh overcome this crisis.
“Without U.S. contributions, Bangladesh would have likely faced substantial delays in securing vaccines for its population,” the editorial noted.
Asked about Trump’s actions, Yunus was diplomatic, especially concerning USAID.
“Suddenly, you wake up and this whole thing (USAID) stops,” he said. “This is a new experience. I’m sure they have a bright plan after that. They can’t just walk away from such a beautiful program, a global program, they had.
“USAID has been very helpful for us. We’re very grateful for the support.”
Tariffs and Bangladesh
In the days since that interview, the president’s new tariff program was initiated, then put on hold for three months. The U.S. was prepared to impose a 37% tariff on imports from Bangladesh, which would have been devastating for the nation’s struggling economy.
As I observed while driving through Dhaka, Bangladesh is home to more than 4,000 garment factories, most of which produce inexpensive clothing for the American market. The United States is Bangladesh’s third-largest trading partner, behind China and India.
The Trump administration claims Bangladesh imposes a 74% tariff on U.S. imports, something Bangladesh disputes. Economist Mustafizur Rahman noted that Bangladesh imports large amounts of cotton from the U.S., which it uses to make clothing it sells back to the U.S.
He told the Daily Sun of Dhaka that the U.S. has policies in place that are supposed to ease tariffs on foreign products made using American raw materials.
President Trump’s three-month pause on increased tariffs was welcomed news, but Bangladesh is anxious to negotiate with Washington, hoping to avoid the mass layoffs and other problems that might come from their full implementation.
Relations with India
Yunus faces other challenges, including relations with neighboring India. But a recent impromptu meeting in Thailand with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a summit of The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, or BIMSTEC, is seen as a positive step.
Bangladesh and India have a long friendship that has been strained recently by India’s decision to grant asylum to Hasina. Yunus has called for her to be returned to Bangladesh to stand trial.
It will take strength and resolve for Bangladesh to overcome its challenges, but strength seems to be in good supply among many. There’s something about enduring the dangers of a bloody revolution.
Mahfuj Alam tried to bring that to life for me during our interview. He described life in hiding from security forces last July.
“We were hiding,” he said. “We knew that any time we got caught, we would get killed.”
What had started as a peaceful student protest — in opposition to Hasina’s quota system guaranteeing a portion of government jobs to descendants of fighters in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 — rapidly turned violent as government police opened fire.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk said as many as 1,400 people were killed over 36 days of protest, most being shot by government security forces, according to the UN News website. Videos of that violence show the brutality on the one side and the resolve on the other, as waves of protesters kept taking to the streets, despite the dangers. When the crackdown began, the movement shifted from a protest against quotas to demands for Hasina and others to resign.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Alam says when I ask him about the violence. “It was her (Hasina’s) sort of playbook. If you were coming in the street with protests, you would have to face bullets. It happened with other political leaders. It happened with everyone who would oppose the regime.
“We were expecting it would happen to us some day.”
It ended quickly as Hasina fled. Alam and his fellow leaders of the movement were happy that Yunus accepted their invitation to lead the country, but Alam is quick to note that the nation’s deep-seated problems, including widespread government corruption, will take a long time to change.
Once Yunus leaves office, Alam and the students who prevailed last summer hope to assume much of the responsibility for shaping the future of Bangladesh. To that end, Alam’s vision is expansive.
Late last year he told The Diplomat, a publication that serves the Asia Pacific region, that he envisions Dhaka, the capital city, as a place where religions, cultures and civilizations can co-exist and form the foundation of a state unique in the region, where ideas can blossom and grow.
To me, he said, “I hope that Bangladesh will be a country which will have educated and skilled workers and institutions free of corruption; a place where resources are used wisely.
“It will have a say in global platforms. This is our hope: Bangladesh will be a dignified political community and will have the institutions necessary to have a say in global platforms and a democratic process. It will not be radicalized.”
The Western world, including Utah, where Yunus has visited and spoken often, should hope this comes true.