Name: Bangladesh former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia dies, aged 80
Uploaded: 2025-12-30T05:06:50.901Z
Duration: 2 min 33 s
Description: Bangladesh’s first female prime minister dies after a prolonged illness in Dhaka, her party says.

Bangladesh’s first female prime minister dies after a prolonged illness in Dhaka, her party says.

Dhaka

Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh and leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has died at the age of 80. Zia was a prominent figure in Bangladeshi politics for over four decades, serving as the nation's first female Prime Minister and leading the country through significant political changes.

Her career was marked by a longstanding rivalry with Sheikh Hasina and multiple terms as Prime Minister between 1991 and 2006. Zia faced legal challenges and imprisonment in her later years, but was acquitted and released after the 2024 overthrow of Hasina. Her death is being mourned by supporters in a country with a history of political turbulence.

Bangladesh former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia dies, aged 80

Khalida Zia was often described as one of Bangladesh's two political matriarchs. Like her decades-long rival, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, she was at the forefront of Bangladeshi politics for more than 40 years. Zia was married to one of the country's so-called founding fathers, Army General Zayyad Rahman, who fought for independence from Pakistan and became President in 1977. After Zayyad was assassinated in a military coup in 1982, Zia became leader of the party he had founded, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Throughout the 1980s, she protested against the military government and was imprisoned many times for her political activities. Zia became Bangladesh's first female Prime Minister in 1991. A BNP-led government formally restored the parliamentary system after nine years of military rule. She was Prime Minister three times between 1991 and 2006, and many in the international community praised her government's education programs and success in attracting foreign investment. But her political career will perhaps be most remembered for her bitter rivalry with Sheikh Hasina. Hasina and her Awami League party won a third consecutive term in December 2018 in an election that Zia and the BNP say was rigged. In the run-up, Zia was arrested and sentenced to five years in jail for corruption involving the establishment of an orphanage fund during her 1991-96 term as Prime Minister. The Supreme Court later doubled her sentence. In a second case in October 2018, Zia was sentenced to a seven-year prison term for corruption linked to a charity. In April 2019, she was released from prison and admitted to hospital suffering from liver and kidney conditions complicated by diabetes. In March 2020, Zia was freed from jail for six months on conditions she stay at home and not leave the country. After the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina in 2024, she was acquitted and released. Zia's death will be mourned by her supporters in a country that has suffered corruption and political violence since its independence in 1971, no matter who or which party has been in power.

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