Bangladesh's first female prime minister Khaleda Zia dies aged 80

30-Dec-2025

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Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh's first female prime minister and an arch-rival of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina, has died from a prolonged illness. She was 80 years old.

Zia intended to run for parliament in February, when the country will vote for the first time since a popular revolution in late 2024 unseated Hasina.

Thrust into the political limelight following the assassination of her husband, then-president Ziaur Rahman, she went on to become Bangladesh's first female PM in 1991.

Her career, which included spells in prison and house arrest, was defined by a bitter feud with Hasina. She was acquitted of corruption and allowed to travel to London for treatment only after Hasina lost power.

Physicians 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 given her age and overall poor health, they added.

"Our favourite leader is no longer with us. She left us at 6am this morning," Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) announced on Facebook on the morning of Dec 30.

When news of her death broke, crowds gathered outside Evercare Hospital in Dhaka where Zia had been admitted.