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Published : 18 Jul 2013, 10:01 PM
Rehana, the sister of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, made a rare media appearance in a news conference called by her daughter Tulip Siddiq at a London restaurant.
Tulip, 30, won Labour Party's nomination last Sunday to run for Hampstead and Kilburn parliamentary seat in 2015.
The press conference catered for the media serving Bangladeshi community in the UK.
Kilburn has a sizeable Bangladeshi population.
Speaking at the news conference, Rehana sought votes from expatriate Bengalis for her daughter.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s younger sister said she desperately looked for a job in the streets of Kilburn after her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated.
Tulip, who has secured Labour Party’s nomination for the next Britain election, also recollected her and her mother’s memories of Kilburn.
”We might be unaware of this… My mother had come here after her entire family was killed in 1975,” she said.
Pointing towards an adjacent street, she said Rehana used to stay there during that time.
Both Hasina and Rehana were in Germany during the massacre of 1975. Rehana has passed almost all her life in exile in London.
She talked about how the days were passed.
“I used to look for jobs desperately on the streets of Kilburn then as I had no place to stay in,” she said. “I had no food either.”
”I never knew where to go or what to do…..”
Rehana later married Dr Shafique Siddiq in 1977 in Kilbrun.
”When I heard she had been nominated from this Kilburn, the whole atmosphere turned happy…,” she added.
The newly-married Tulip lives with her husband Christian Percy in Kilburn too.
”Many ask me why I stood from this constituency. I grew up here at Hampstead and Kilburn and staying with my husband,” Tulip said.
The niece of Hasina confirmed her Labour Party nomination last Sunday beating off competition from two other competitors – another Camden Councillor Sally Gimson and Deputy Mayor of Hackney Borough Sophie Linden – for the nomination for the 2015 parliamentary elections.
She added Tulip was here today because of her own abilities and it did not matter who she was related to.
”Her grandfather (Bangabandhu) used to tell us to help the helpless because it gives you mental peace,” she said.
Tulip Siddiq sought to justify her getting involved in politics on the shores far, far away from the land her grandfather had founded.
She said one can serve the people from anywhere.
“If I were to stand for elections in Bangladesh, you people would have said it’s dynasty politics. ‘Have you done it on your own or through your family?” she said.
Tulip studied English literature for her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the University College of London. She did a second Master’s in Politics, Policy and Government before pursuing a career in British politics.
She has been involved with the Labour Party for a long time.
Rehana said she won’t interfere in her daughter’s decision making.
She also asked everyone to pray for her daughter so that she could succeed in politics.
