Who Was Begum Khaleda Zia? Bangladesh’s First Female Prime Minister Dies At 80

Bangladesh’s first female Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, has died after a prolonged illness. She was 80. According to a statement from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Khaleda Zia died at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 30, while undergoing treatment.

“The BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, passed away today at 6:00 a.m., shortly after the Fajr prayer,” the statement read.

Khaleda Zia was admitted to Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital on Nov. 23 after being diagnosed with infections in her heart and lungs. She was also battling pneumonia, Bangladeshi daily The Daily Star reported.

Khaleda Zia was born to Iskandar Majumder and Taiyaba Majumder in Dinajpur District on August 15, 1946, as per the party’s official website. The daughter of a tea trader, she studied at Dinajpur Missionary School before completing her matriculation at Dinajpur Girls' School in 1960. 

Known by the nickname “Putul,” Khaleda Zia was the second of five siblings, with three sisters and two brothers, The Daily Star reported.

In 1960, she married Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, then an officer in the Pakistan army, and continued her education at Surendranath College until 1965, the part website added.

When Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam became the President of Bangladesh, she accompanied him as the First Lady and met world leaders including UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

When the Liberation War erupted in 1971, Ziaur Rahman rebelled across frontlines. Following his assassination in May 1981, the BNP plunged into a severe crisis. It was then that Khaleda Zia entered the BNP. She was appointed the party’s vice-president on Jan. 12, 1984, and made the chairperson on May 10, 1984, the official website said.

The 1991 parliamentary elections marked her breakthrough. The BNP won a clear majority, and Khaleda Zia, who contested from five constituencies in three successive general elections, won every seat she stood for. On March 20, 1991, she was sworn in as Bangladesh’s prime minister. As cited by BBC, she became “the first female leader of Bangladesh, and only the second woman to lead a Muslim country.”

Khaleda Zia secured a second term in the February 1996 election, though major opposition parties boycotted the polls. Responding to growing pressure, her government introduced a constitutional amendment to establish a non-partisan caretaker administration to oversee elections. After handing power to this caretaker setup on March 30, 1996, her party was defeated in the subsequent June elections, and she became Leader of the Opposition during the 1996-2001 Awami League tenure.

Khaleda Zia returned to power when the BNP-led four-party alliance swept the 2001 polls, winning more than two-thirds of parliamentary seats. She was sworn in for a third term on Oct. 10, 2001, The Daily Star reported.

The army-backed caretaker government that took over in 2007 arrested her alongside other political leaders. Though later freed, her party failed to secure victory in the 2008 election. The BNP also boycotted the 2014 election, leaving the party, and Khaleda Zia herself, without parliamentary representation for the first time since 1991.

Legal battles then defined her life. In 2018, Khaleda Zia was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2018 for the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust corruption cases.

With the Covid-19 pandemic unfolding, the government suspended her sentence through an executive order on March 25, 2020, on the condition that she doesn’t leave the country. Finally, on Aug. 6 this year, she was fully released after Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin granted her clemency.