DID Press: Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s first female prime minister and a dominant figure in the country’s politics for decades, has died after a prolonged illness. She was 80.
Zia died on Tuesday, according to local media reports. She served two terms as prime minister, from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006, becoming the first woman to hold the office in Bangladesh.
She entered politics following the assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, in 1981, and went on to lead the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Her long-running political rivalry with Sheikh Hasina shaped Bangladesh’s political landscape for years and became widely known as the “Battle of the Begums.”
Despite being out of power since 2006 and spending periods in prison and under house arrest, Zia and the BNP retained a significant support base across the country.
Her death marks the end of one of the most consequential chapters in modern Bangladeshi politics.