{"id":7906,"date":"2025-12-30T02:33:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T02:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=7906"},"modified":"2025-12-30T02:33:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T02:33:24","slug":"khaleda-zia-first-female-bangladesh-prime-minister-dies-aged-80-bangladesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=7906","title":{"rendered":"Khaleda Zia, first female Bangladesh prime minister, dies aged 80 | Bangladesh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia, whose archrivalry with Sheikh Hasina defined the country\u2019s politics for a generation, has died, her political party said on Tuesday. She was 80.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe BNP chairperson and former prime minister, the national leader Begum Khaleda Zia, passed away today at 6am, just after the Fajr (dawn) prayer,\u201d the party said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe pray for the forgiveness of her soul and request everyone to offer prayers for her departed soul,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Zia was the country\u2019s first female prime minister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She had faced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2014\/mar\/19\/bangladesh-khaleda-zia-trial-corruption\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">corruption cases<\/a> she said were politically motivated, but in January 2025 the supreme court acquitted Zia in the last corruption case against her, which would have let her run in February\u2019s election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She had returned to the country in May after undergoing medical treatment in the UK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In early January, Bangladesh\u2019s interim government had allowed her to travel abroad after Hasina\u2019s government rejected previous requests at least 18 times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Despite years of ill health and imprisonment, Zia vowed in November to campaign in elections set for February 2026 \u2013 the first vote since a mass uprising toppled her arch-rival Sheikh Hasina last year. Zia\u2019s BNP is widely seen as a frontrunner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But in late November she was rushed to hospital, where, despite the best efforts of medics, her condition declined from a raft of health issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">During her final days, interim leader Muhammad Yunus called for the nation to pray for Zia, calling her a \u201csource of utmost inspiration for the nation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Zia was married to president Ziaur Rahman, who was killed during a 1981 coup. Zia then helped build a mass movement against the military dictator, who was finally ousted in 1990.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She won her first term in 1991 and served again from 2001. Her opponent in that election and several since was Hasina.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><em>With Associated Press and Agence France-Presse<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Khaleda #Zia #female #Bangladesh #prime #minister #dies #aged #Bangladesh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Bangladeshi prime minis&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}