Bangladesh’s First Female Prime Minister Khaleda Zia Dies at 80.
Dhaka:
Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s first female prime minister and a towering figure in the country’s politics for more than three decades, died early Tuesday following a prolonged illness. She was 80.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which Zia led for years, announced that she passed away at around 6am at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka, where she had been receiving treatment for kidney failure, heart disease and pneumonia. Doctors had described her condition as extremely critical and said she was on life support.
Zia rose to prominence after the assassination of her husband, former president Ziaur Rahman, in 1981. She later entered politics and became prime minister for the first time in 1991, marking a historic moment as Bangladesh’s first woman to hold the office. She served multiple terms, with her first tenure widely praised for restoring parliamentary democracy and advancing women’s education and social development.
Her political career was marked by a long and bitter rivalry with Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s other dominant political leader. Zia faced repeated imprisonment and house arrest, and was convicted in corruption cases that she maintained were politically motivated. She was allowed to travel abroad for treatment only after Hasina lost power following mass protests in late 2024.
Despite poor health, Zia remained a powerful symbol of opposition politics and had planned to campaign ahead of the upcoming general election. Crowds gathered outside the hospital as news of her death spread.
Tributes poured in from across the region. Interim leader Muhammad Yunus hailed her as a symbol of the democratic movement, while leaders from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh’s political spectrum acknowledged her lasting impact on the nation’s political life.
