‘Because of women it became a people’s revolution’: what has changed one year on from Bangladesh’s student uprising?

The Women’s March for Solidarity, to demand equal rights and justice for women, in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, three months ago. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

On 5 August 2024, Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister of Bangladesh and fled the country, the culmination of a student uprising that saw the most widespread participation of women in street protests in Bangladesh’s history.

Armed with sticks and stones, Bangladeshi women headed marches and stood defiant against riot police and the military. Their presence became a defining image of a revolution that has rewritten Bangladesh’s political and social narrative.