Born Khaleda Khan, she lived a largely private life until
tragedy thrust her into public prominence. Described by contemporaries as shy
and family-oriented, she devoted herself to raising her two sons until the
assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, in a failed military coup
in 1981. Three years later, she assumed leadership of the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP), founded by her late husband, pledging to fulfil his
vision of rescuing Bangladesh from poverty and economic stagnation.
Khaleda Zia rose to national leadership during a historic
moment. Alongside Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Bangladesh’s founding leader
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, she led a popular uprising that toppled military ruler
Hossain Mohammad Ershad in 1990. Yet the alliance soon collapsed, giving birth
to one of South Asia’s fiercest political rivalries. The two leaders came to be
known as the “battling Begums,” their contrasting personalities and
uncompromising politics dominating public life for decades.
In 1991, Khaleda Zia won Bangladesh’s first widely regarded
free and fair election, becoming the country’s first female prime minister and
only the second woman to lead a democratic government in the Muslim world after
Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto. Her government restored the parliamentary system,
encouraged foreign investment, and made primary education free and compulsory.
Defeated in 1996, she returned to power with a landslide
victory in 2001. However, her second term was overshadowed by the rise of
Islamist militancy, allegations of corruption, and political violence,
including the deadly 2004 grenade attack on an opposition rally — an episode
that would haunt her legacy.
Ousted from power in 2006, Khaleda Zia spent years in jail
or under house arrest amid corruption cases she consistently denounced as
politically motivated. Her health steadily declined, and she was released on
humanitarian grounds before being fully freed in 2024 following the ouster of
Sheikh Hasina. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court acquitted her and her
family in the long-running corruption cases.
Though long absent from office, Khaleda Zia remained a
commanding presence, with the BNP retaining deep popular roots. Her death
closes a turbulent chapter in Bangladesh’s history — one defined by resilience,
rivalry, and the enduring struggle for democratic stability.
