Nahid Islam

Nahid Islam didn’t have to get any older than 26 to help bring down one of the most powerful people in the world. The sociology graduate is one of the faces of a student movement that kick-started countrywide protests against Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. One of many protest leaders, he became more widely known after being tortured by the country’s notorious intelligence services. Not long after, he delivered the students’ one-point demand: Hasina must resign. “No one thought she could be toppled,” Islam says. Hasina fled the country on Aug. 5 following weeks of demonstrations.

The biggest challenge might still lie ahead. Islam is one of two Gen Z ministers in the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Their task: repairing the democratic system that was eroded during the 15-year reign of an increasingly authoritarian government. “We should understand the pulse of the new generation,” Islam says. Political violence between parties, endemic in Bangladesh, must stop. “We need to move on.”