Kuka naimisissa Sirimawo Bandaranaike?

Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (17. huhtikuuta 1916 Ratnapura, Brittiläinen Ceylon – 10. lokakuuta 2000 Colombo, Sri Lanka) oli srilankalainen poliitikko. Hän oli maansa pääministerinä kolmeen kertaan vuosina 1960–1965, 1970–1977 ja 1994–2000. Hän oli maailman ensimmäinen naispuolinen pääministeri.

Hän oli Sri Lankan edellisen pääministerin leski, ja otti vastaan puolueensa puheenjohtajuuden miehensä Solomon Bandaranaiken salamurhan jälkeen. Hän johti Sri Lankan vapauspuoluetta yli 40 vuoden ajan. Bandaranaiken tyttärestä Chandrika Kumaratungasta tuli Sri Lankan presidentti vuonna 1994. Hän nimitti äitinsä viimeiselle pääministerikaudelle, ja tällä kertaa virka oli lähinnä seremoniallinen.

Bandaranaike muistetaan valtiomiesmäisestä toiminnastaan ja sosialistisesta politiikastaan kylmän sodan aikana. Hän kansallisti yksityisyrityksiä ja rajoitti tavaroiden tuontia vuonna 1972. Samana vuonna Ceylonista tuli Sri Lankan tasavalta, ja viimeiset siteet emämaa Britanniaan katkaistiin.

Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (8 January 1899 – 26 September 1959), also known as "The Silver Bell of Asia" (ආසියාවේ රිදී සීනුව), was a Sri Lankan statesman who served as the fourth Prime Minister of the Dominion of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), serving from 1956 until his assassination in 1959. The founder of the left-wing and Sinhalese nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party, he was elected the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon after creating a powerful coalition called the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and contesting on the lines of Sinhalese nationalism and democratic socialism. He achieved a landslide victory over the ruling United National Party in the general elections in 1956.

His tenure saw some of the first left wing reforms instituted by the Freedom Party in Sri Lanka such as the nationalizing bus services and introducing legislation to prohibit caste based discrimination. Bandaranaike further consolidated Sri Lanka's newly gained independence by formally abrogating the 1947 United Kingdom–Ceylon Defence Agreement and establishing diplomatic missions with a number of communist states. He implemented a new language policy, the Sinhala Only Act, making Sinhala the sole official language of the country, creating much controversy.

On 25 September 1959, Bandaranaike was shot at his town house in Colombo and died of his wounds the day after. A Buddhist monk named Ven Talduwe Somarama was arrested, convicted and hanged for the murder of Bandaranaike. Minister of Education and the acting leader of the house, Wijeyananda Dahanayake was appointed caretaker prime minister by the Governor General and was confirmed by Parliament.

Bandaranaike's widow Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike led the Freedom Party to gain a majority in parliament and was elected the first female prime minister in the world. She expanded on her husband's left-wing reforms in her two terms as prime minister from 1960 to 1964 and from 1970 to 1977. In 1994, Bandaranaike's daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga headed a coalition led by the Freedom Party to be elected prime minister and thereafter president serving from 1994 to 2005 and Bandaranaike's son Anura Bandaranaike served as Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2001.