Bangladesh’s first female prime minister dies aged 80

Desk report:  Bangladesh’s former prime minister died on Tuesday aged 80, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said.

Many believed that Khaleda Zia, the country’s first female prime minister, would sweep elections next year and lead her country once again, despite years of ill health and imprisonment.

She pledged in November to campaign in elections set for February 2026 – the first vote since a mass uprising toppled Sheikh Hasina, her arch-rival, last year.

The BNP is widely viewed as front-runner, and Zia’s son Tarique Rahman, who only returned to the country on Thursday after 17 years in exile, is seen as a potential prime minister if the party wins a majority.

Bangladesh declared three days of national mourning for its former prime minister, whose funeral will be held on Wednesday.

Zia went to London for medical treatment in early 2025, staying for ⁠four months. In late November she was rushed to hospital, where her condition deteriorated.

Doctors said on Monday that Zia’s condition was “extremely critical”. She was put on life support, but it was not possible to provide multiple treatments at the same time because of her age and overall poor health, they added.

Nevertheless, on Monday, hours before her death in Dhaka, party workers had submitted nomination papers on Zia’s behalf for three constituencies.

The party said in a statement: “The BNP chairperson and former prime minister, the national leader Begum Khaleda Zia, passed away today at 6:00 am [midnight GMT], just after the Fajr [dawn] prayer.”

“We pray for the forgiveness of her soul and request everyone to offer prayers for her departed soul,” it added.

Muhammad Yunus, the country’s interim leader, said Bangladesh had “lost a great guardian”.

“Through her uncompromising leadership, the nation was repeatedly freed from undemocratic conditions and inspired to regain liberty,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner said in a statement.

Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, said he hoped that Zia’s “vision and legacy will continue to guide our partnership”, a warm message despite the strained relations between New Delhi and Dhaka since Hasina’s fall.

Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, said Zia had been a “committed friend” to Islamabad, while Yao Wen, China’s ambassador in Dhaka, offered his condolences.

Mr Yao said: “China will continue to maintain its longstanding and friendly ties with the BNP.”

Mourners gathered on Tuesday morning outside the hospital in Dhaka where Zia’s body rests.

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, the senior BNP leader, told reporters: “This is an irreparable loss for the nation.”

Golam Kibria, 29, a BNP loyalist who claimed he was tortured under Hasina’s government, said Zia “chose prison over luxury and spent years behind bars” and called her an “unmatched leader who can never be replaced”.

Zia was said to have been shy and devoted to raising her two sons until her husband Ziaur Rahman, the country’s military leader and president, was assassinated in an attempted army coup in 1981.

Three years later, she became ‍the head of the ‌BNP, which her husband had founded, and pledged to deliver his aim of “liberating Bangladesh from poverty and economic backwardness”.

She joined hands with Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father and head of the Awami League party, to lead a popular uprising for democracy that toppled Hussain Muhammad Ershad, the military ruler, in 1990.

But their co-operation did not last long. Their rivalry led to them being called “the battling begums” – a phrase that uses an Urdu honorific for prominent ‍women.

In 1991, Bangladesh held what was hailed as its first free election. Zia won a surprise victory over Hasina, having gained the support of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic party.

In doing so, Zia became Bangladesh’s first female prime minister and only the second woman to ‍lead a democratic government of a mainly Muslim nation after Benazir Bhutto, who had been elected to lead Pakistan three years earlier.

Zia replaced the presidential system with a parliamentary one, so that power rested with the prime minister. She also lifted restrictions on foreign investment and made primary education compulsory and free.

She lost to Hasina in the 1996 general election, but came back five years later with a surprise landslide win.

However, her second term was marred by the ⁠rise of ‌Islamist militants and allegations of corruption.

In 2004, a ‍rally that Hasina was addressing was hit by grenades. Hasina survived but more than 20 people were killed and more than 500 wounded. Zia’s government and its Islamic allies were widely blamed.

In 2018, after Hasina had reclaimed Bangladesh’s highest office, Rahman was tried in absentia and sentenced to life for the attack. The BNP ​denounced the trial as politically motivated.

Although Zia later ‍clamped down on Islamist radical groups, her second stint as prime minister ended in 2006 when an army-backed interim government took power amid political instability and street violence.

The interim government jailed both Zia and Hasina on charges of corruption and abuse ⁠of power for about a year before they were both released before a general election in 2008.

Zia never regained power. With the BNP boycotting the 2014 ​and 2024 elections, her feud with Hasina continued to dominate Bangladeshi politics.

Tension between ‌their two parties often led to strikes, violence and deaths, impeding the economic ⁠development of Bangladesh, a poverty-stricken country of about 175 million that is low-lying and prone to devastating floods.

Convicted of stealing foreign donations

In 2018, ‍Zia, Rahman and aides were convicted of stealing some $250,000 (£185,000) in foreign donations received by an orphanage trust set up when she was last prime minister – charges that she said were part of a plot to keep her and her family out of politics.

She was jailed but moved to house arrest in March 2020 on humanitarian grounds as her health deteriorated. Zia was freed from house arrest in August 2024.

Hasina, 78, was sentenced to death in absentia in November for crimes against humanity and remains in hiding in India.

In a statement on social media by her now-banned Awami League party, Hasina said: “I pray for the eternal peace and forgiveness of Begum Khaleda Zia’s soul.”

Bangladesh’s Prothom Alo newspaper, which said Zia had “earned the epithet of the ‘uncompromising leader’”, reported that Rahman and other family members were by her side at the time of her death.