Saima Wazed has stepped down from her position as the World Health Organization’s regional director for Southeast Asia. Her resignation follows reports of investigations into allegations of fraud and other irregularities, according to Reuters. Wazed, the daughter of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has faced scrutiny amid these claims, raising questions about accountability within international health governance.
Hasina was forced to resign and flee Bangladesh in August 2024 following a deadly student-led uprising that grew into a mass movement against her government. She was initially sent on leave in July 2025 after Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission, under the interim government that succeeded Hasina, filed charges against her in March 2025 alleging fraud and forgery. In 2024, protests initially triggered by opposition to a quota system for government jobs developed into a broader anti-government movement. More than 300 people were killed in the unrest, according to contemporary Hindustan Times reports. Hasina resigned on August 5 and fled to India, where she has remained since.
Reuters reporters Krishna N Das and Jennifer Rigby reported that the WHO had placed Wazed on unpaid administrative leave late last year.
The WHO also alleged that Wazed had illegally acquired a plot of land in Bangladesh, according to her resignation letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Wazed said she had acquired the land before joining the WHO and was entitled to it under a Bangladeshi law covering the families of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding leader and Hasina’s father. In her resignation letter, Wazed said she had been elected to serve the countries in the Southeast Asian region but had been prevented from effectively performing her duties.
The resignation comes as the political fallout from Hasina’s ouster continues to affect members of her family and close associates. Wazed’s resignation comes against the backdrop of the dramatic political downfall of her mother, Sheikh Hasina, who was Bangladesh’s longest-serving prime minister. Wazed resigned on Wednesday, according to a resignation letter seen by Reuters, ending her tenure at the WHO amid investigations by the UN agency and Bangladeshi authorities.
