Sheikh Hasina is the prime minister of Bangladesh (1996–2001, 2009–present), the eighth most populous and the third largest Muslim country of the world. This chapter attempts to provide an institutional and historical understanding of the emergence of Sheikh Hasina as one of the most powerful female leaders in South Asia. Her leadership style, which incorporates a soft veneer and a steel determination, illustrates a case study of political systems with weak democratic political institutions where leaders nominally play by the norms of institutions, yet tend to sidestep them for political ends and use economic development to compensate for the deficit in political legitimacy. This chapter uses the biography of Sheikh Hasina as a text in which Bangladesh politics, political culture and her unique political history are inscribed.