Rizwana Hasan

Syeda Rizwana Hasan (born 15 January 1968) is a Bangladeshi environmental lawyer, chief executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA). Born in Habiganj into a Bengali Muslim zamindar family known as Narapati Haveli, she studied law at the University of Dhaka. Since 2003 she has led court campaigns on the shipbreaking industry and on lake-filling, polythene, hill cutting and deforestation, winning the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2009, the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2012 and the International Women of Courage Award in 2022. In August 2024 she became an adviser in Bangladesh's interim government, holding the environment, forest and climate change portfolio and the water resources portfolio, and from December 2025 also information and broadcasting, until February 2026. ^{1 2}

She was born on 15 January 1968 in Habiganj, East Pakistan, to Syed Mahibul Hasan and Suraiya Hasan. She studied at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College and at Holy Cross College in Dhaka, and took her bachelor's and master's degrees in law at the University of Dhaka. ¹

Hasan became involved in the shipbreaking industry by suing the breaking yards in Chittagong in 2003 for, among other reasons, health hazards to workers, poor working conditions and improper waste disposal; in March 2003 the court declared shipbreaking without an environmental clearance illegal. She has continued to press for labour rights and a safer working environment in the industry, and has successfully sued organisations involved in filling lakes for real estate, improper use of polythene, hill cutting, deforestation, shrimp farming and illegal building on St. Martin's Island. Under her leadership BELA won the United Nations Environment Programme's Global 500 Roll of Honour in 2003. ¹

After the interim government of 2024 was formed under Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, Hasan was appointed adviser for environment, forest and climate change on 9 August 2024, took on water resources as well on 16 August 2024, and added information and broadcasting on 11 December 2025, serving until 17 February 2026. After leaving office she and another former adviser were targeted by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami protests in March 2026 over alleged interference in the February 2026 parliamentary elections — allegations reported as coming from the party's leaders. ¹

She received the inaugural Environment Award of Bangladesh's Ministry of Forestry and Environment in 2007, the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2009, was named a Hero of the Environment by TIME magazine, received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2012 "for her uncompromising courage and impassioned leadership in a campaign of judicial activism in Bangladesh that affirms the people's right to a good environment as nothing less than their right to dignity and life", and received the International Women of Courage Award from the US Department of State in 2022. ¹

She married her classmate, the lawyer-entrepreneur Abu Bakar Siddique, and has a daughter and two sons. In April 2014 her husband, the managing director of a garment factory, was briefly abducted and then released. ¹

The sources read for this entry state that she was born into a Bengali Muslim zamindar family — a statement about her family. No source names a religion or school for her personally, and Wikidata carries no religion value for her; her faith is therefore recorded as unknown in the museum's data, with the family statement preserved in the faith note of her record. ^{1 2}

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