Begum Khaleda Zia, born August 15, 1945, is a political leader from Bangladesh who served two terms as the Prime Minister of the country, first from 1991 to 1996 and then again from 2001 to 2006. Not only Begum Zia is the first female Prime Minister in Bangladesh’s history but also, she is the second woman to become the head of the government in a Muslim-majority country. Begum Khaleda Zia is also the wife of Ziaur Rahman, who was president of Bangladesh from 1977 to 1981. Ziaur Rahman founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP, one of the two major political parties in Bangladesh. Begum Khaleda Zia has been the chairperson and leader of BNP since 1983.
After President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated by a group of army officers in 1981, a military coup by the Chief of Staff of the Army, Lt General Hussain M Ershad ousted the BNP-led government in 1982. Begum Zia assumed the leadership of the BNP in 1983 and led the movement to restore democracy in Bangladesh in the 1980s. After a long political and social struggle, the government of General Ershad fell in 1990. Under the leadership of Begum Zia, BNP won the first free and fair parliamentary election held in Bangladesh under a caretaker government in early 1991. Following the election victory, Begum Khaleda Zia became the prime minister in 1991. She led the government until 1996.
Begum Khaleda Zia led BNP to election victory again in 2001 and once again became prime minister. She has an unmatched record of contesting five parliamentary constituencies in different parts of the country and winning them all in the elections of 1991, 1996, and 2001.
Begum Khaleda Zia studied at Surendranath College in Dinajpur until 1965. After her wedding to Ziaur Rahman, an officer of the Pakistan Army, she followed her husband to West Pakistan where he was assigned a post by the army. The couple moved back to East Pakistan in March 1969 when Ziaur Rahman was posted in the Chittagong area at the southeastern part of Bangladesh. They made their home in the Sholoshahar area of Chittagong city. When Ziaur Rahman rebelled against the Pakistan Army and took up arms following the military crackdown on the people of Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan, in March 1971, Begum Zia and her two young sons were taken prisoner by the Pakistan army and were moved to Dhaka cantonment. She was held as a captive there throughout the Liberation War in 1971 and was freed with the surrender of the Pakistan Army in December 1971.
President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated by a group of disgruntled army officers on May 30, 1981. Following his death, Vice President Abdus Sattar assumed the office of the president. President Sattar won the Presidential Election held in November 1981. However, the army chief Hussein Muhammad Ershad mounted a coup in March 1982 and deposed the president and BNP-led government. After the military coup, BNP gradually launched a movement to restore democracy in Bangladesh and the party looked towards the widow of Ziaur Rahman for providing leadership and inspiration for the movement at a time of confusion, disunity, and disempowerment. Begum Khaleda Zia, an intensely private and family person until the death of her husband, rose to the challenge defying all expectations.
Begum Khaleda Zia became a primary member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party on January 3, 1982. She assumed the position of vice-chairman of the party on March 1983 and on, May 4, 1984, she was elected as the Chairperson of BNP. Since then, Begum Zia has held that position till today.
From the very beginning of her political life, Begum Zia took up an uncompromising stance on the restoration of democracy in Bangladesh. She became the most formidable opponent to the military regime of General Ershad. Led by Begum Zia, BNP began to explore a broad-based political and social movement for democracy. On August 1982, BNP formed a ‘7 party alliance’ with six other like-minded political parties. The coalition reached an agreement to launch a movement against the military regime by bringing in the general people to oppositional political activities. Begum Zia presided over the first major public rally on September 30, 1982, in front of the party office in Dhaka, and on November 28, she led a ‘gherao movement’ of the government secretariat offices with several hundreds of thousands of people attending. The military regime tried to quell the growing movement with the ruthless application of force and Begum Zia was put under ‘house arrest’ on the very day of the besiegement movement.
In 1984, the ‘7 party alliance’ led by Begum Zia declared February 6 as ‘Demand Day’ and February 14 as ‘Protest Day’. These days were marked by countrywide rallies and processions. A brutal crackdown by the military regime on the political activists resulted in several deaths and scores of grievous injuries. However, the movement continued under Begum Zia’s indefatigable leadership. The alliance held another nationwide ‘Mass Resistance Day’ in July 1984. That event was followed by a countrywide demonstration from September 16-20 and a day of hartal or strike on September 27, 1984. The movement against the military regime intensified in early 1985 and the government once again put Begum Zia under house arrest in an effort to suppress political opposition.
In order to dampen the mounting political opposition, the military regime declared fresh parliamentary elections in the country in 1986. The opposition was led by two political coalitions, the previously mentioned ‘seven party alliance’ and a ‘fifteen party alliance’ led by the Awami League, the other major political party in Bangladesh. The two alliances first held discussions together on the merits of participating in the parliamentary election held under a military regime. The possibility of forming a grand coalition to contest and oppose the regime together emerged as the most desirable path for the people of Bangladesh. However, the Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina caught the opposition off guard on March 19, 1986, by declaring in a public rally that anyone who would join the election under Ershad would be a ‘national traitor’.
Despite proclaiming that participating election under the military regime of General Ershad would be tantamount to treason, Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, in a stunning volte-face, unilaterally took part in the election without consulting the other political parties in opposition. The move split the nascent opposition coalition. Begum Zia remained steadfast in opposing the election held under the total control of an autocratic regime. She declared the coming election illegal and unconstitutional and exhorted the people of Bangladesh to resist the election.
The regime put Begum Khaleda Zia under house arrest on the eve of the election. Most of the major parties in Bangladesh, except BNP, took part in the election. However, the tarnished, ‘managed’ and unfree parliamentary election of 1986 resulted in the victory of the Jatiya Party of General Ershad and the Awami League was relegated to a token oppositional role. Meanwhile, the uncompromising stance of Begum Zia raised her stature immensely among the people of Bangladesh. She was dubbed as an ‘uncompromising leader’ of democracy. Many political observers point out this is the juncture in the politics of Bangladesh where Begum Zia truly emerged out of the shadow of President Zia and became established as a national leader on her own merit.
On October 13, 1986, Begum Zia was again confined to house arrest before the 1986 Presidential election. After the election she was released but she used her freedom to call for a fresh movement against the government. The government in response put her back under house arrest.
While in January 1987 Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina was participating in the parliament of General Ershad, Begum Zia was leading a movement in the street demanding the dissolution of the parliament. Many mass rallies and nationwide strikes took place from February to July 1987. Sensing the increasing general opposition to the puppet parliament of General Ershad, Sheikh Hasina and Awami League MPs also resigned from the parliament. In October of the same year BNP and Awami League jointly declared a siege of the capital city Dhaka on the date of November 10, 1987.
To thwart the all-opposition ‘besiege of Dhaka’ on November 10, the Ershad government launched an unprecedented wave of repression of political activists before and during the day. Police and armed forces used weapons to break up any gathering of people in the city. Complete chaos took over the streets of the city. It is estimated that dozens of people died, and thousands were wounded on November 10, 1987, a black day in the political history of Bangladesh. Begum Zia was arrested and confined to house arrest until December 11.
After the tumultuous 1987, the next couple of years were relatively calm in politics of Bangladesh, with only occasional clashes between political activists and government forces. During these two years BNP gathered organizational strength all over the country through activities of its student, labor, youth wings. Particularly noteworthy and consequential was BNP’s student wing the Chatra Dal becoming the largest and most active student organization by winning most of the student union elections happening in colleges and universities all over the country. By 1990, Chatra Dal was at the helm of 270 out of 321 student union bodies in the country.
Chatra Dal winning the student union of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) in 1990 was especially consequential. Dhaka University has been a traditional epicenter of political movement throughout Bangladesh’s history. The new leadership of DUCSU declared fresh programs against the regime. On October 10, 1990, Chatra Dal leader Naziruddin Jehad died on the street from police violence. Continued violence by the law enforcement forces brought the opposition political parties together for a grand alliance once again.
After two months of protests, movements and violent crackdowns that paralyzed the country, the grand alliance was successful in compelling General Ershad in tendering his resignation on December 6, 1990. A neutral Caretaker Government was formed by agreement of all parties to oversee the holding of a free and fair parliamentary election. The election was held on February 27, 1991. BNP under the leadership of Begum Khaleda Zia was the only party to win more than 100 seats in the 300-seat parliament, winning 140 seats. The second largest party was Awami League with 88 seats. The election sealed Begum Zia’s status as the most popular national political leader in the country. Begum Zia was sworn in as Bangladesh’s first female Prime Minister on March 20, 1991. One of the first acts of the new parliament was to pass the twelfth Amendment to the constitution, which returned Bangladesh to Parliamentary system of governance from the Presidential system.
The 1991 to 1996 parliamentary government under the leadership of Begum Zia is credited by history as transformational for the subsequent economic and administrative development of Bangladesh. Finance Minister Saifur Rahman laid the foundation of Bangladesh’s private sector-led economic growth by introducing Value Added Tax, privatization of State-owned Enterprises, tax and revenue reforms, etc. Begum Zia’s government also reformed and restructured the local government system. The work on Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge, the largest infrastructure project until then in independent Bangladesh, began and was almost completed by end of the term of the government.
On February 15, 1996, a new parliamentary election was held by the BNP government but the election was marred by boycott from major opposition parties. The short-lived parliament introduced the caretaker government system of holding national elections at the end of each term by passing the 13th amendment to the constitution. The February 15 parliament was dissolved to hold fresh elections under a caretaker government. In the new election of June 12, 1996, BNP won the second-highest number of 116 seats, the largest number of seats ever won by an opposition party in Bangladesh’s history.
The BNP formed a four-party alliance on January 6, 1999, to consolidate opposition against the Awami League government. The four party-alliance took part in the October 1, 2001, parliamentary election and BNP won 193 of 300 seats, winning over 40% of votes cast in the election. Begum Zia was sworn in as Prime Minister once again.
The BNP-led government worked to fulfil its election pledge during the 2001-2006 term. Economic growth was brisker than in the previous decade. The share of domestic resource mobilization in developmental spending grew to such an extent that Bangladesh shed its historical image as a foreign aid-dependent country. Export revenue, remittances, tax revenue became main sources of resources for the government budgets. Foreign investment in Bangladesh’s private sector, infrastructure, and energy sector poured in from Western and Asian developed economies. Bangladesh dealt with extremism and organized violence during the early years of the global War on Terror with a stern resolve.
In foreign relations, Begum Zia’s government formulated a ‘look east’ policy to increase economic and social ties with the growing Asian economies. She promoted friendly and cooperative relations with neighboring countries in the South Asian region. Bangladesh also became a major participant in the International Peace Keeping efforts under United Nations and other international organizations.
In early 2006, a fresh parliamentary election was scheduled to take place, but a military-back coup took over the caretaker government role and proceeded to govern the country indefinitely. The new regime tried to suppress political activity in Bangladesh by targeting leaders of political parties. Begum Zia was arrested on September 3, 2007 and was confined in a makeshift prison on the parliament building complex. She was released on September 11, 2008 after a year-long confinement.
On 29 December 2008, the regime held new parliamentary elections under controversial circumstances. Awami League emerged as the leading party with an absolute majority in the number of seats. From the very beginning, the new Awami League government focused on the destruction of BNP as the main political opponent and future political threat. The Amami League regime personally targeted Begum Zia and her family. On November 13, 2010, she was evicted from the private residence within the Dhaka cantonment that was allotted to her by the government after the assassination of Ziaur Rahman and where she has been living for more than 38 years.
The Awami League government passed an amendment to get rid of the Caretaker system of holding neutral elections and proceeded to consolidate political power under a one-party regime. The motive behind the removal of caretaker governments for elections was made abundantly clear to the world when the Awami regime held highly controlled and totally unfree elections in 2014 and 2019 that provided them with nearly hundred percent of seats. The party has consolidated a one-party authoritarian regime in Bangladesh through these sham elections. BNP and the oppositional parties were subject to an unprecedented wave of repression. On February 8, 2018, Begum Zia was sentenced to five years in prison in trumped-up charges of corruption.
Begum Zia’s health condition deteriorated in prison and she was admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for medical treatment on April 1, 2019. Bail petitions and over legal recourses for her release were rejected by the High Court and the Supreme Court a total of four times. On March 25, 2020, Begum Zia was released for six months, with the condition that would remain confined in her residence and not leave the country, even on medical grounds.
In April 2021, Begum Zia was diagnosed with COVID-19 along with staff in her residence. After a period of deteriorating health, she recovered. Begum Zia has been suffering from many chronic health complications for a long time, including kidney conditions, decompensated liver diseases, unstable hemoglobin. Most of these conditions developed during her confinement and she has been repeatedly denied lifesaving, advanced medical treatment abroad. As of now, she remains in a delicate heath condition in her advanced years. She has been taking treatment at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka starting from April 27- June 19, 2021, 12 October 12 – November 3, 2021 and again since November 14, 2021.
Although confined physically and in poor health, Begum Khaleda Zia remains the undisputed icon of democratic political aspiration for the people of Bangladesh. Her life story is the story of the nation’s tortuous path toward political, social, and economic freedom.