Bangladesh’s first woman Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia, dies at 80 after prolonged illness

Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, the country’s first woman to hold the office, passed away on Tuesday following a long period of illness, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said. She was 80.

Doctors treating her said Zia had been battling multiple age-related health conditions, including advanced liver cirrhosis, diabetes, arthritis, and complications involving her heart and chest. She had been admitted to Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital on November 23 and was placed on ventilator support on December 11. Two days before her death, her personal physician had described her condition as extremely critical.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the BNP said doctors declared Zia dead at around 6 am. The party said her health worsened late Monday night and plans to fly her to London for advanced treatment had to be abandoned after a medical board declined clearance for her transfer to the airport, despite a special aircraft from Qatar being kept on standby.

Zia’s death comes at a politically sensitive moment. On Monday, nomination papers were submitted in her name for the Bogura-7 constituency ahead of Bangladesh’s general elections scheduled for February.

Her son, Tarique Rahman, who returned to Dhaka last week after 17 years in exile, is widely seen as a leading contender in the polls. He is set to contest from Dhaka-17 and Bogra-6. The Bogra-6 seat, once considered a stronghold of Khaleda Zia, was won by Awami League leader Ragebul Ahsan Ripu in 2023.

On Sunday, Rahman visited his mother at Evercare Hospital and spent more than two hours with her.

Khaleda Zia served two terms as Prime Minister, first from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006. She was not only Bangladesh’s first woman Prime Minister but also the second woman, after Benazir Bhutto, to lead a democratically elected government in a Muslim-majority country.

She was married to Ziaur Rahman, Bangladesh’s sixth President and a central figure in the 1971 Liberation War. He founded the BNP in 1977 and was assassinated in May 1981.

Zia took over as BNP chairperson in 1984 and went on to spearhead the party’s movement against the military-backed regime of HM Ershad, who seized power in 1982. During Ershad’s nearly nine-year rule, she was detained at least seven times.