Tarique Rahman on Time's 100 Most Influential People list

Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has been named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world for 2026.

The New York-based magazine published the list on Wednesday, featuring global leaders including US President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Pope Leo XIV, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah, and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

In its profile of Rahman, Time wrote: “Rewind just a few months and Tarique Rahman was living a carefree life of exile in leafy southwest London. But the 2024 ousting of Bangladesh’s autocratic Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina propelled the 57-year-old scion from opposition agitator to national leader-in-waiting — a destiny he fulfilled in February by winning an electoral landslide after 17 years estranged from his homeland.”

Rahman’s victory came just days after the death of his mother, Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s first female prime minister. Still grieving, he told Time in January that he would focus on uniting the country’s 175 million people and reviving South Asia’s second-largest economy.

Bangladesh is grappling with high inflation and youth unemployment, while relations with India have reached a historic low. All these issues demand urgent attention, the magazine noted.

“Corruption allegations from the aughts (albeit since quashed by the courts) may mean any honeymoon period will be shorter than most. But after so many years in the wilderness, he’s determined not to waste any more time.”

“We need to work together,” Rahman told Time, “so that people can have their political rights.”