Khaleda Zia, former Bangladesh prime minister, has died

Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh's first female prime minister, has died aged 80 (age disputed), and was credited with promoting girls' education and liberalised economic policies.

Khaleda Zia, a two-time prime minister of Bangladesh and the country's first woman to hold that office, has died; reports give her age as 80, though that was disputed. She led the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and served in government during the 1990s and again after 2001. Zia was widely noted for promoting girls' education and for policies associated with economic liberalisation. Her public life was dominated by a long political rivalry with Sheikh Hasina that shaped decades of Bangladeshi politics. Key facts: - Khaleda Zia served two terms as prime minister, in the 1990s and the early 2000s. - Her age at death is reported as 80, but official records and past disputes gave different dates. - She is credited in public accounts with advancing girls' education and continuing liberalised economic policies begun by her husband. - Her rivalry with Sheikh Hasina was a defining feature of national politics and led to repeated periods of protests, boycotts and caretaker arrangements. - After conviction and imprisonment in 2018, she was later held under house arrest, was acquitted under the 2024 interim government of Muhammad Yunus, and had been nominated for the election due next month while the BNP is now led by her elder son, Tarique. Summary: Khaleda Zia was a central and polarising figure whose policies on education and the economy are widely noted in accounts of Bangladesh's development. Her death comes ahead of a national election scheduled for next month, in which the BNP will participate under Tarique's leadership; the immediate political and procedural consequences are unfolding and undetermined at this time.