Wednesday, 31 December, 2025
Leaders do not endure by the number of years they live, but by the good they leave behind. A leader truly remains alive as long as the people remember their deeds.
By that measure, Begum Khaleda Zia will live on in Bangladesh for generations — remembered for a lifetime of sacrifice that carried her from a shy girl known as Putul to the commanding centre of the nation’s democratic struggle.
Her long and turbulent journey ended at 6:00am on Tuesday at Evercare Hospital, where she had been undergoing treatment for 37 days. News of her death spread swiftly across the country and beyond, drawing grief from millions at home and tributes from world leaders abroad.
Streets fell silent, party offices filled with mourners, and an entire nation paused to reckon with the passing of one of its most consequential figures.
Begum Khaleda Zia’s life was never merely the story of a politician. It was the story of a woman thrust into history’s relentless gaze, who remained there for more than four decades — often isolated, constantly challenged, repeatedly targeted, yet never fully broken.
Few figures in Bangladesh’s post-independence history have so completely embodied the country’s turbulence, resilience and contradictions.
She began life far from power. Born Khaleda Khanam in Dinajpur and nicknamed Putul — meaning “doll” — she grew up without political ambition or public aspiration. Politics seemed a distant world. Even after the 1975 upheaval that eventually brought her husband, Ziaur Rahman, to power, she stayed largely out of sight, a soft-spoken homemaker who preferred the quiet company of her two sons, Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Coco, to the spotlight of public life.
That reluctance ended abruptly with tragedy. When President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated in 1981, Khaleda Zia was left widowed at 36, suddenly exposed to the brutal realities of power and intrigue. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), founded by her husband, splintered into factions. Senior leaders, anxious to preserve unity, turned to the grieving widow — not initially as a mass leader, but as a moral anchor capable of holding the party together.
What followed was one of the most remarkable political transformations in South Asian history. From a reluctant figurehead, Khaleda Zia evolved into a formidable political force. As Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain later recalled, her ascent from housewife to “Madam” at the helm of the BNP fundamentally altered the party’s trajectory, transforming it into a genuinely mass-based organisation.
Born in August 1946, the third of five children of Iskandar Majumdar and Tayeba Majumdar, Khaleda’s family history spanned Feni, Jalpaiguri and Dinajpur — a geography shaped by Partition and displacement. She was educated at a missionary school and later Dinajpur Government Girls’ High School before marrying Captain Ziaur Rahman in 1960. Zia would later command the Z Force during the Liberation War and rise to the presidency.
After his assassination, the BNP initially faltered under Vice President Justice Abdus Sattar, widely viewed as lacking political resolve. Khaleda Zia entered politics cautiously in 1982, beginning symbolically by paying homage at her husband’s grave. Within two years, amid military rule under General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, she emerged as acting chairperson of the BNP, and in 1984 was formally elected party leader — a post she would hold for the next 40 years.
Her defining political identity was forged in opposition. Throughout the 1980s, she led relentless movements against Ershad’s military regime, refusing compromise even when others sought accommodation. Arrested repeatedly, restricted in movement, and subjected to emergency laws, she persisted. It was during this period that BNP activists bestowed upon her the title that would endure: the uncompromising leader.
That defiance culminated in the mass uprising of 1990, when sustained street protests finally toppled military rule. In the 1991 election — the first time she herself ever cast a vote — Khaleda Zia won all five constituencies she contested. She became Bangladesh’s first female prime minister, and only the second woman to lead a Muslim-majority country.
Her first term marked a decisive shift in Bangladesh’s political economy. At a time when the country was transitioning away from state-dominated control, Khaleda Zia accelerated liberalisation, promoted private-sector-led growth, reduced state monopolies and opened space for entrepreneurship and foreign investment. Her governments initiated the first systematic reforms of the banking sector, strengthened Bangladesh Bank’s supervisory role, expanded private banking, and brought the capital market into national economic planning.
Equally important was her emphasis on inclusion. Social safety-net programmes were expanded, women’s education and employment were promoted, and microcredit initiatives widened financial access. Disaster response during floods and cyclones was coordinated at the highest political level. Her leadership helped embed the idea that economic growth and social protection could advance together.
Yet her legacy is inseparable from controversy. Her second term, beginning in 2001, was marked by political polarisation, governance failures, allegations of widespread corruption, the rise of militancy, and damaging episodes such as Operation Clean Heart and the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally. The influence of Hawa Bhaban and her alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami remain among the most contentious chapters of her rule.
After Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2009, Khaleda Zia’s political space narrowed dramatically. The abolition of the caretaker government system effectively removed the BNP from competitive electoral politics. Parliamentary activity stalled, street movements were curtailed, and the opposition leader found herself increasingly isolated.
Her conviction in corruption cases in 2018 — dating back more than a decade — marked a decisive turning point. BNP and independent observers described the cases as selective justice designed to neutralise the most prominent opposition figure ahead of elections. Her health deteriorated in prison, medical treatment was repeatedly delayed, and even after her conditional release she remained confined, barred from politics and under state control.
To supporters, the public humiliation of a former prime minister served as a warning to dissenters. To critics of the government, her removal from active politics symbolised the collapse of meaningful multi-party competition. By the time of the July mass uprising years later, Khaleda Zia had become a powerful symbol — not the cause of revolt, but one of its most visible precedents.
By the end, she was physically weakened and politically silenced, yet symbolically potent. Her final public appearance came in November at the Armed Forces Day ceremony. Illness prevented any return to frontline politics.
“She was the mother of our democracy,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said. “She endured repression and imprisonment but never abandoned the democratic path.”
Begum Khaleda Zia’s life closed a chapter defined by power and persecution alike. To some, she will always be a fearless champion of democracy. To others, a flawed leader whose misjudgements carried heavy costs. But history will remember her as the woman who rose from a quiet household in Dinajpur to the summit of power — and stayed there far longer than anyone ever expected.
Her deeds will outlive her life. In her absence, Bangladesh is left with a haunting question that continues to echo: what becomes of democracy when its opposition is broken, not defeated?
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Leaders do not endure by the number of years they live, but by the good they leave behind. A leader truly remains alive as long as the people remember their deeds.
By that measure, Begum Khaleda Zia will live on in Bangladesh for generations — remembered for a lifetime of sacrifice that carried her from a shy girl known as Putul to the commanding centre of the nation’s democratic struggle.
Her long and turbulent journey ended at 6:00am on Tuesday at Evercare Hospital, where she had been undergoing treatment for 37 days. News of her death spread swiftly across the country and beyond, drawing grief from millions at home and tributes from world leaders abroad.
Streets fell silent, party offices filled with mourners, and an entire nation paused to reckon with the passing of one of its most consequential figures.
Begum Khaleda Zia’s life was never merely the story of a politician. It was the story of a woman thrust into history’s relentless gaze, who remained there for more than four decades — often isolated, constantly challenged, repeatedly targeted, yet never fully broken.
Few figures in Bangladesh’s post-independence history have so completely embodied the country’s turbulence, resilience and contradictions.
She began life far from power. Born Khaleda Khanam in Dinajpur and nicknamed Putul — meaning “doll” — she grew up without political ambition or public aspiration. Politics seemed a distant world. Even after the 1975 upheaval that eventually brought her husband, Ziaur Rahman, to power, she stayed largely out of sight, a soft-spoken homemaker who preferred the quiet company of her two sons, Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Coco, to the spotlight of public life.
That reluctance ended abruptly with tragedy. When President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated in 1981, Khaleda Zia was left widowed at 36, suddenly exposed to the brutal realities of power and intrigue. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), founded by her husband, splintered into factions. Senior leaders, anxious to preserve unity, turned to the grieving widow — not initially as a mass leader, but as a moral anchor capable of holding the party together.
What followed was one of the most remarkable political transformations in South Asian history. From a reluctant figurehead, Khaleda Zia evolved into a formidable political force. As Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain later recalled, her ascent from housewife to “Madam” at the helm of the BNP fundamentally altered the party’s trajectory, transforming it into a genuinely mass-based organisation.
Born in August 1946, the third of five children of Iskandar Majumdar and Tayeba Majumdar, Khaleda’s family history spanned Feni, Jalpaiguri and Dinajpur — a geography shaped by Partition and displacement. She was educated at a missionary school and later Dinajpur Government Girls’ High School before marrying Captain Ziaur Rahman in 1960. Zia would later command the Z Force during the Liberation War and rise to the presidency.
After his assassination, the BNP initially faltered under Vice President Justice Abdus Sattar, widely viewed as lacking political resolve. Khaleda Zia entered politics cautiously in 1982, beginning symbolically by paying homage at her husband’s grave. Within two years, amid military rule under General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, she emerged as acting chairperson of the BNP, and in 1984 was formally elected party leader — a post she would hold for the next 40 years.
Her defining political identity was forged in opposition. Throughout the 1980s, she led relentless movements against Ershad’s military regime, refusing compromise even when others sought accommodation. Arrested repeatedly, restricted in movement, and subjected to emergency laws, she persisted. It was during this period that BNP activists bestowed upon her the title that would endure: the uncompromising leader.
That defiance culminated in the mass uprising of 1990, when sustained street protests finally toppled military rule. In the 1991 election — the first time she herself ever cast a vote — Khaleda Zia won all five constituencies she contested. She became Bangladesh’s first female prime minister, and only the second woman to lead a Muslim-majority country.
Her first term marked a decisive shift in Bangladesh’s political economy. At a time when the country was transitioning away from state-dominated control, Khaleda Zia accelerated liberalisation, promoted private-sector-led growth, reduced state monopolies and opened space for entrepreneurship and foreign investment. Her governments initiated the first systematic reforms of the banking sector, strengthened Bangladesh Bank’s supervisory role, expanded private banking, and brought the capital market into national economic planning.
Equally important was her emphasis on inclusion. Social safety-net programmes were expanded, women’s education and employment were promoted, and microcredit initiatives widened financial access. Disaster response during floods and cyclones was coordinated at the highest political level. Her leadership helped embed the idea that economic growth and social protection could advance together.
Yet her legacy is inseparable from controversy. Her second term, beginning in 2001, was marked by political polarisation, governance failures, allegations of widespread corruption, the rise of militancy, and damaging episodes such as Operation Clean Heart and the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally. The influence of Hawa Bhaban and her alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami remain among the most contentious chapters of her rule.
After Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2009, Khaleda Zia’s political space narrowed dramatically. The abolition of the caretaker government system effectively removed the BNP from competitive electoral politics. Parliamentary activity stalled, street movements were curtailed, and the opposition leader found herself increasingly isolated.
Her conviction in corruption cases in 2018 — dating back more than a decade — marked a decisive turning point. BNP and independent observers described the cases as selective justice designed to neutralise the most prominent opposition figure ahead of elections. Her health deteriorated in prison, medical treatment was repeatedly delayed, and even after her conditional release she remained confined, barred from politics and under state control.
To supporters, the public humiliation of a former prime minister served as a warning to dissenters. To critics of the government, her removal from active politics symbolised the collapse of meaningful multi-party competition. By the time of the July mass uprising years later, Khaleda Zia had become a powerful symbol — not the cause of revolt, but one of its most visible precedents.
By the end, she was physically weakened and politically silenced, yet symbolically potent. Her final public appearance came in November at the Armed Forces Day ceremony. Illness prevented any return to frontline politics.
“She was the mother of our democracy,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said. “She endured repression and imprisonment but never abandoned the democratic path.”
Begum Khaleda Zia’s life closed a chapter defined by power and persecution alike. To some, she will always be a fearless champion of democracy. To others, a flawed leader whose misjudgements carried heavy costs. But history will remember her as the woman who rose from a quiet household in Dinajpur to the summit of power — and stayed there far longer than anyone ever expected.
Her deeds will outlive her life. In her absence, Bangladesh is left with a haunting question that continues to echo: what becomes of democracy when its opposition is broken, not defeated?
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