Khaleda Zia, the first female prime minister of Bangladesh, has died at the age of 80. Her death was announced on Tuesday morning by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Zia's long-running rivalry with Sheikh Hasina defined the country's politics for a generation.
Zia was the widow of former president Ziaur Rahman, who was killed in a military coup in 1981. She entered politics after his death and became a prominent figure, serving as prime minister from 1991 to 1996 and again briefly in 2001. Her tenure was marked by accusations of corruption, and in 2018 she was jailed on corruption charges, which her party said were politically motivated.
Under Hasina's rule, the BNP faced harassment and oppression. Zia was under house arrest for years until the fall of Hasina in a 2024 mass uprising. She was freed and allowed to travel abroad for medical treatment in January 2025. Despite ill health, Zia vowed in November to campaign in elections set for February 2026, but her condition declined and she was hospitalised.
Interim Prime Minister Muhammad Yunus called Zia a “symbol of the democratic movement”. Her son Tarique Rahman, who lived in exile in the UK for 18 years, recently returned to Bangladesh to contest the elections. Zia is expected to be buried on Wednesday in Dhaka alongside her husband.
