Mobarok Hossain Tany: Begum Khaleda Zia (15 August 1945 – 30 December 2025), the first female Prime Minister of Bangladesh and long-time Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), remains one of the most influential and uncompromising leaders in the nation’s political history. Her life and leadership were defined by unwavering commitment to democracy, extraordinary resilience, personal courage, and deep patriotism. To millions, she was not merely a political leader but a symbol of hope, dignity, and national unity widely known as “Aposhheen Neetri” (The Uncompromising Leader).
Her resistance to military dictatorship, the historic boycott of the 1986 election with a five-point demand, her leading role in the mass movement that led to the fall of General Ershad’s regime in 1990, and her consistent refusal to compromise national sovereignty or engage in political deals form the cornerstone of her legacy.
Following the assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, in 1981, Khaleda Zia reluctantly entered politics to preserve the unity of the BNP. In an extraordinary transformation, a devoted housewife emerged as the voice of the common people. Within a remarkably short time, she became a national leader, commanding mass support through simplicity, integrity, and tireless dedication.
In 1991, she made history as Bangladesh’s first female Prime Minister. Her government restored parliamentary democracy, shifting the country from a presidential system, and introduced landmark reforms, including making primary education free and compulsory. Although her second term in February 1996 was brief and controversial, it played a crucial role in democratic development through the passage of the Caretaker Government Bill, ensuring neutral and fair elections. In 2001, she returned to power with a landslide victory, focusing on economic reform, social welfare, and women’s empowerment, despite facing criticism over governance challenges. Remarkably, she won all 23 parliamentary seats she contested across five general elections between 1991 and 2008.
Her later years were marked by prolonged political persecution. In 2007, she was detained for a year under a military-backed caretaker government. In 2018, she was sentenced to 17 years in prison in the Zia Orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust cases—verdicts her supporters and many international observers described as politically motivated. Despite severe illness, she endured more than two years in an abandoned jail before being placed under house arrest on humanitarian grounds in 2020. Yet, she never chose exile, firmly declaring, “I have no address outside the country.”
Following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government during the student-led mass uprising on 5 August 2024, Begum Khaleda Zia was finally released on 6 August by an executive order of President Mohammed Shahabuddin. Addressing the nation shortly after her release, she delivered a message of reconciliation and moral clarity, stating:
“A new society must be built—not through destruction, not through revenge, and not through retaliation—but through love and peace.”
Begum Khaleda Zia was a rare jewel in Bangladesh’s political landscape—one whose absence can never truly be filled. For generations to come, nearly 170 million people will remember her with profound respect, gratitude, and love as a leader who stood firm for democracy, dignity, and the soul of the nation.