While Bangladesh’s prime minister has been attending the United Nations this week, stock market investors back home rioted over steep losses, the police arrested hundreds of Islamist protesters and the main political opposition party threatened a general strike for Saturday, when it is her turn to speak at the annual General Assembly.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, appeared unfazed.

A stern grandmother figure with a calm voice and cool gray eyes, Mrs. Hasina, who turns 64 this month, has survived far worse in her rollercoaster political career in Bangladesh, one of the world’s most impoverished countries, with a history of political chaos and military interventions over much of the 40 years since it won independence from Pakistan.

Her father was Bangladesh’s most important independence leader. He, her mother and three brothers were assassinated at home by gunmen in 1975. Mrs. Hasina, a career politician herself, has been the target of multiple assassination attempts. She suffered hearing damage because of an explosion from a grenade meant to kill her in 2004. She is no stranger to house arrest, prison and conspiracy plots. In 2009, two months into her current term as prime minister, she faced a bloody revolt by border guards in her own military.

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