From ‘shy housewife’ to Bangladesh’s first female PM

Khaleda Zia, who has died at the age of 80, was Bangladesh’s first female prime minister.

Her husband, Ziaur Rahman, a leading figure in the country’s struggle for independence, was president in 1977. At the time, Ms Zia was described as a “shy housewife” devoted to their two sons.

But, following her husband’s assassination in 1981, she rose to lead his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and served two terms as prime minister – first in the 1990s and then in the early 2000s.

In the brutal world of Bangladeshi politics, she was accused of corruption and spent years in prison – but the charges were dropped after a 2024 uprising that saw her long-time rival, Sheikh Hasina, swept from power.

Begum Khaleda Zia was born in West Bengal in 1945.

The daughter of a tea trader, she moved to what is now Bangladesh with her family after the partition of India.

At the age of 15, she married Ziaur Rahman – then a young army officer.

In 1971, he joined a mutiny against West Pakistani forces and declared independence for Bangladesh.

After the military ceased power in 1977, Rahman – now the army chief of staff – declared himself president. He reintroduced political parties and a free media, and was later endorsed by popular vote.

He faced as many as 20 further military coups, and dealt with them brutally. There were reports of mass executions of soldiers.

In 1981, he was assassinated by a group of army officers in Chittagong.

Until then, Khaleda Zia had kept a low profile and seemed to take little interest in public life.

But she became a member of the BNP and rose to become its vice chairman.

In 1982, Bangladesh began nine years of military dictatorship, and Ms Zia found herself organising the campaign for democracy.

The army held occasional, heavily-managed elections, but she refused to allow her party to take part. Before long, she was placed under house arrest.

Nonetheless, she continued to promote mass rallies and days of action that eventually forced the army into submission.

In 1991, Khaleda Zia and the BNP became the largest party in post-military elections, and she was sworn in as prime minister.

Having absorbed most of the powers of the old presidency, she was now the first female leader of Bangladesh, and only the second woman to lead a muslim country.

With Bangladeshi children receiving only two years education on average, she made primary school free and mandatory for all.

But, five years later, she lost her bid for re-election to Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.

In 2001, Ms Zia had her revenge, having formed a alliance with a group of Islamist parties. Together, they won nearly two thirds of the seats in parliament.

In her second term, she introduced a constitutional amendment to reserve 45 seats in the legislature for female MPs, and worked to educate young women – in a country where 70% of them were illiterate.

In October 2006, Ms Zia stepped down ahead of a scheduled general election.

But a wave of riots saw the military step in. New democratic elections were promised, but the poll ended up being delayed.

The interim government banned most political activity and began a crackdown on high-level corruption, which cut across political lines.

A year later, Ms Zia was arrested on charges of extortion and corruption.

This followed the earlier detention of her great rival Sheikh Hasina, the Awami leader and daughter of the first president of Bangladesh.

Both women, who had alternated from government to opposition for the best part of two decades, were suddenly mired in court cases.

Ms Zia was placed under virtual house arrest.

In 2008, her restrictions were lifted, and she participated in military-sponsored elections which ended in Sheikh Hasina forming a government.

In 2011, a case was filed against Ms Zia by the Anti-Corruption Commission, which accused her of using undisclosed income to buy land for a charity named after her late husband.

She was arrested, imprisoned and faced a huge battle to keep control of her party.

In 2014, her supporters boycotted a general election, arguing that the vote would have been rigged by the Awami League.

In the event, the elections were far from free and fair, with widespread arrests of BNP activists and half the seats in parliament elected uncontested.

On the anniversary of the boycott a year later, Ms Zia demanded new elections in the country and planned to lead a mass BNP demonstration against the government.

In response, Bangladeshi security forces stopped her from leaving her party offices in the capital Dhaka by locking the doors, and banned all protests in the city.

Ms Zia said at the time that the government was “disconnected” with its people and with its actions had “confined the whole country”.

The charges laid against Ms Zia related to her second period in office, when she allegedly used her influence to award contracts in connection with cargo terminals in 2003.

Her younger son, Arafat “Koko” Rahman, was accused of pushing her to approve the deals.

In 2018, Ms Zia was convicted and jailed for five years after being found guilty of embezzling about $252,000 (£188,000) intended for an orphanage trust set up when she was prime minister.

She became the only prisoner locked up in Dhaka’s old – and now disused – central jail. The length of her sentence disqualified her from seeking public office.

She denied wrongdoing, and said the charges were politically motivated.

A year later, 73-year-old Ms Zia was transferred to hospital for treatment for conditions including severe arthritis and uncontrolled diabetes.

She was eventually released from prison on health grounds and told to remain at home.

In 2024, Sheik Hasina’s government was swept from power on a wave of popular discontent.

When a protest against quotas in public service employment resulted in the mass killings of civilians, a furious anti-government uprising took place.

Ms Hasina fled to India, and the interim government that replaced her ordered Khaleda Zia’s release and the unfreezing of her bank accounts.

By this time, she was suffering from a series of life-threatening conditions including cirrhosis of the liver and kidney damage.

In January 2025, her travel restrictions were lifted and she was allowed to travel to London for treatment.

But in the early morning of 30 December, she died in Dhaka after suffering from months of poor health.

She is survived by her elder son Tarique Rahman, who returned to Bangladesh in late December after spending years in exile in London, and who is widely seen as the frontrunner to become Bangladesh’s next leader. “Koko”, her younger son, died in 2015.