Women take lead in new Bangladesh Cabinet

BANGLADESH: Bangladesh's newly sworn-in prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed has unveiled her cabinet team, appointing women for the first time to head the home and foreign ministries.

The 31-member cabinet comprises five women in total, including the 61-year-old prime minister herself, who is taking power of the impoverished country for the second time.

The Awami League party leader was premier for five years from 1996. Dipu Moni, a doctor and first-time MP who was active in the party's women's wing, was named the country's first female foreign minister while Sahara Khatan, a lawyer, was given the home ministry portfolio.

Motia Chowdhury returned to the agriculture ministry she headed in Sheikh Hasina's previous administration, while Munnujan Sufian, a newcomer to politics, was made a state minister.

DHAKA, Wednesday, AFP