Bangladesh’s first female PM Khaleda Zia dies at 80 after prolonged illness

Guwahati: Bangladesh’s first female Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia, died early Tuesday morning after a prolonged illness, her party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), confirmed.

“The BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister, national leader Begum Khaleda Zia, passed away today at 6 a.m., just after the Fajr (dawn) prayer,” the party said in a statement. It urged supporters to pray for her departed soul.

Zia, 80, had suffered from advanced liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and heart and chest problems, her doctors said.

Her decades-long rivalry with Sheikh Hasina shaped Bangladesh’s political landscape for a generation. Despite facing corruption charges she claimed were politically motivated, the Supreme Court acquitted Zia in January 2025, clearing her to contest February’s parliamentary elections. She had returned to Bangladesh in May 2025 after medical treatment in the U.K., after the interim government permitted her travel abroad following at least 18 prior rejections by Hasina’s administration.

Zia was married to President Ziaur Rahman, who was killed in a 1981 coup. She mobilized a mass movement against military rule, leading to the dictator’s ouster in 1990. She won her first term as Prime Minister in 1991 and served a second term from 2001, repeatedly facing Hasina as her political opponent.

Although out of power since 2006 and having spent years in jail or under house arrest, Zia and her centre-right BNP retained substantial support. The party remains the frontrunner ahead of the February 2026 parliamentary elections. Her son and acting party chairman, Tarique Rahman, 60, returned to Bangladesh last week after nearly 17 years in self-imposed exile and is widely considered a potential prime ministerial candidate.