Fighting long battles with illness and tyranny, Khaleda Zia returns to election race after 17 years
In the upcoming election, scheduled for February 2026, Khaleda Zia will contest from three constituencies — Feni-1, Bogura-7, and Dinajpur-3.
She is known to be the first woman to be elected as the prime minister of Bangladesh and the second in the Muslim world.
Khaleda Zia, born on 15 August 1946, has led the BNP through turbulent decades of politics, imprisonment, and revival.
Now, as she prepares to contest in the upcoming 13th national election, her return marks a new chapter in Bangladesh's political landscape.
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Rise in politics
In 1960, she married Ziaur Rahman, who would later become titled Bir Uttam for his glorious role in 1971 Liberation War and the president of Bangladesh. As first lady, she accompanied him through the early years of post-independence nation-building.
Khaleda Zia joined the BNP as a general member on 2 January 1982, following her husband's assassination.
Within two years, she was elected vice-chairman, and in August 1984, she became the chairperson, a position she still holds.
After Ziaur Rahman's death, she took charge of the BNP and began her electoral journey in 1991, becoming a "non-compromising" leader of the anti-autocracy movement that toppled the Ershad regime.
Since then, she has contested from various constituencies and has never lost a seat.
Return to the ballot
In the upcoming election, scheduled for February 2026, Khaleda Zia will contest from three constituencies — Feni-1, Bogura-7, and Dinajpur-3.
The BNP announced its candidate list for 237 out of 300 seats on Monday (3 November), reserving these three for its chairperson.
Feni-1 and Bogura-7 are familiar grounds for Khaleda; she has previously won both.
Dinajpur-3, covering Dinajpur Sadar upazila, is her birthplace — a symbolic choice for this election.
Her sister Khurshid Jahan had been MP from this seat for two terms from 1996 to 2001 and from 2001 to 2006. She died of liver disease on 14 June 2006. She was the Women and children affairs minister and the vice-chairperson of BNP before she died.
Meanwhile, Khaleda's son and BNP's acting chairperson Tarique Rahman will contest from Bogura-6, marking his debut in electoral politics.
Winning streak
Khaleda Zia's electoral history is marked by consistent victories. In 1991, she contested from five constituencies — the maximum permitted — and won all of them: Bogura, Feni, Dhaka-9, Dhaka-5, and Chattogram-8.
Following the BNP's landslide victory that year, she became the country's first female prime minister.
Early life
Khaleda Zia was born to Iskandar Majumder and Taiyaba Majumder in Dinajpur on 15 August 1946.
Although her family originally hails from Feni in the country's southeast, they later settled in Dinajpur, where she spent most of her childhood.
She attended Dinajpur Government Girls High School and later studied at Surendranath College.
Of her two sons, Tarique Rahman, born in 1967, has been the party's de facto leader from exile in London since 2008, directing affairs and addressing party events virtually.
Arafat Rahman, born in 1971, died of cardiac arrest in Malaysia in January 2015, while Khaleda was out of power, and was buried in Dhaka next to his father.
Under her leadership
During her premiership, Bangladesh transitioned into a parliamentary democracy. Economic reforms during her tenure spurred major transformations, particularly in the ready-made garments (RMG) sector, which saw employment growth, bringing more women into the workforce.
Internationally, she raised crucial issues at global forums, including the Ganges water-sharing dispute and the Rohingya refugee crisis.
In 1992, she visited the White House and urged international action, leading to an agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar for Rohingya refugees.
Political highs and lows
Khaleda Zia returned to office briefly in 1996 after a landslide BNP win but stepped down within a month to facilitate a caretaker government. Though BNP lost the subsequent election, it secured 116 seats — the largest opposition in parliamentary history.
In 1999, BNP formed a four-party alliance with Jatiyo Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Islami Oikya Jote to challenge the ruling Awami League.
The coalition's success in 2001 returned Khaleda to power, where she pledged to curb corruption and extremism.
Her global prominence grew when Forbes ranked her 29th among the world's 100 most powerful women in 2005 for her contributions to women's empowerment and education.
Imprisonment and house arrest
In 2007, following a military-backed government takeover, Khaleda was arrested on what her party termed trumped-up corruption charges. A decade later, on 8 February 2018, she was sentenced to five years in jail in the Zia Orphanage Trust case, later doubled by the High Court.
She was also sentenced to seven years in the Zia Charitable Trust case the same year. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the government temporarily freed her on 25 March 2020 on condition she remain at her Gulshan residence and not leave the country.
Despite multiple extensions of this conditional release, the Awami League government repeatedly denied her family's appeals for advanced medical treatment abroad.
Presidential pardon
Her fate changed dramatically following the 2024 July Uprising and the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government. The following month, President Mohammad Shahabuddin commuted her sentences under Article 49 of the Constitution, granting her full clemency — a development considered the first such presidential pardon for a former prime minister in Bangladesh's history.
The long-awaited reunion
After five years under house arrest, Khaleda Zia left Dhaka for London on 8 January 2025 for medical treatment — and to reunite with her son after more than seven years apart.
The emotional reunion between Khaleda and Tarique Rahman at Heathrow Airport symbolised the family's resilience. Tarique, who has lived in exile since 2008, drove his mother to The London Clinic, where she continues receiving treatment for liver cirrhosis, diabetes, arthritis, and complications involving her kidneys, lungs, and heart.
Their meetings in 2017 and 2025, separated by over seven years, reflect not just personal endurance but also political survival through Bangladesh's shifting tides.
Khaleda's medical journey had long been a political flashpoint. Since her 2018 imprisonment, doctors had urged overseas treatment, especially after she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in late 2021. The Awami League government, however, consistently blocked her travel citing legal barriers.
It was only after the presidential clemency on 6 August 2024 that her path to treatment abroad opened — coinciding with a new era in Bangladesh's politics.
