Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s former PM, dies aged 80.
Bangladesh’s first female prime minister, Khaleda Zia, sadly passed away after a prolonged illness at a Dhaka hospital.
Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s trailblazing first female prime minister and a giant in the nation’s stormy political saga, slipped away peacefully at 80, her long battle with illness finally over, her party announced with heavy hearts. In a poignant statement released Tuesday, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) shared that she breathed her last at 6am local time (00:00 GMT) at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka, where compassionate doctors had tended to her since her admission on November 23 amid a stubborn lung infection.
“Our beloved national leader is no longer with us,” the BNP mourned in words that echoed the quiet grief rippling through homes and hearts across Bangladesh. held for this resilient woman who rose from widowhood to lead a nation. Her doctors had revealed a heartbreaking litany of ailments—advanced liver cirrhosis gnawing at her strength, arthritis stiffening her once-commanding frame, diabetes shadowing her days, and persistent chest and heart troubles that no treatment could fully tame. It was a slow, dignified fade for someone whose life had been anything but quiet.[1]
Zia’s passing draws a tender curtain on over three decades of fierce rivalry that defined Bangladesh’s democracy, her epic clashes with Sheikh Hasina—the so-called “battling begums”—shaping the country’s fate like chapters in a gripping family feud writ large. Hasina, ousted from power last year and now condemned to death in absentia for her brutal suppression of student protests, lingers in exile in India, her own story a mirror of turmoil. Together, they embodied the unyielding spirit of Bangladeshi women in politics, battling not just each other but military coups, corruption charges, and the relentless churn of power. Zia’s legacy? A fierce defender of opposition voices, jailed multiple times yet unbroken, leading the BNP through floods of adversity with a motherly resolve that endeared her to supporters who saw her as family.
Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, captured the nation’s sorrow in a heartfelt post on X, his words carrying the weight of shared loss. He expressed “profound sorrow” at the departure of this three-time prime minister, hailing her as a “symbol of the democratic movement” and declaring, “the nation has lost a great guardian.” “I am deeply saddened and grief-stricken by her death,” he confessed, a rare vulnerability from a man who’s seen his share of Bangladesh’s ups and downs. Yunus’s tribute resonated like a father’s lament, reminding everyone of Zia’s role in nurturing the fragile flame of democracy amid dictators and dynasties.
As news spread, ordinary Bangladeshis paused amid Dhaka’s bustling streets, sharing tea-stained memories of Zia’s era—the economic booms she championed, the freedoms she fought for, even the personal scandals that humanized her. Supporters gathered quietly outside the hospital, lighting candles and whispering prayers, their faces etched with the quiet ache of losing a matriarch. For a country still healing from political wounds, her death feels like the end of an era, yet her spirit lingers in the BNP’s resolve and the dreams of a freer tomorrow. In kitchens and mosques alike, people reflect on how one woman’s unyielding heart touched so many lives, leaving behind not just politics, but a profound human story of courage, loss, and unbreakable will. Rest in peace, Khaleda—your light endures.