Saima Wazed

Saima Wazed (Bengali: সায়মা ওয়াজেদ; born 9 December 1972), also known as Putul (Bengali: পুতুল), is a U.S. licensed school psychologist and the daughter of Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. In 2024, she became the South East Asian regional director for the World Health Organization in spite of lacking public health experience and in the face of nepotism charges. In 2025, she was placed on indefinite leave from the WHO for providing false information about her academic qualifications. In September 2026, she resigned from this position. In 2025, Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission filed two cases against Wazed alleging she falsified her academic credentials to secure her position and misused her influence to obtain approximately $2.8 million from banks for the Shuchona Foundation, which she previously led. In November 2025, she was sentenced to 5 years in jail for the Purbachal scam cases in her hometown Dhaka.