International media highlight Khaleda Zia’s death

The death of BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has been widely covered by leading international media outlets, reflecting her long-standing influence on Bangladesh’s politics and her stature on the global stage.

Major international news organisations—including Reuters, AFP, The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, the BBC, The Guardian and Qatar-based Al Jazeera—published prominent reports on her passing, underscoring her role as Bangladesh’s first female prime minister and a central figure in the country’s turbulent political history.

The New York Times ran the headline, “Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s First Female Prime Minister, Dies,” noting that she served as prime minister three times. The report highlighted that she was the country’s first woman to hold the office and governed for two full terms and one brief term. It also recalled how, for decades, she shaped Bangladeshi politics through a fierce rivalry with another woman leader, Sheikh Hasina, as power alternated between the two.

The UK-based Guardian in its report referred to her prolonged political confrontation with Sheikh Hasina. The report noted that despite years of imprisonment and ill health, Khaleda Zia had said last November that she intended to campaign in the general election scheduled for February—the first election since the fall of her main rival, Sheikh Hasina, following a mass uprising last year. The Guardian added that many observers had viewed the BNP as a potential winner in the upcoming polls.

The Washington Post, described her as one of the most influential and polarising figures in Bangladesh’s modern political history.

Reuters in its report recalled her ascent to power in 1991 as Bangladesh’s first woman prime minister and detailed her intense political rivalry with Sheikh Hasina, outlining key milestones of her political career.

The French news agency AFP reported under the headline “Bangladesh’s Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia Dies at 80.” Citing BNP sources, AFP said that many had seen her as a possible contender to return to leadership by winning the next election.

The BBC headlined its coverage “Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s First Female Prime Minister, Dies Aged 80.” The report noted her long illness and recalled that she first took office in 1991, following what it described as Bangladesh’s first democratic election in two decades. Despite her health condition, the BBC reported, her party had said she would contest the general election scheduled for February.

 “Zia intended to run for parliament in February, when the country will vote for the first time since a popular revolution in late 2024 unseated Hasina”

Thrust into the political limelight following the assassination of her husband, then-president Ziaur Rahman, she went on to become Bangladesh's first female PM in 1991.

Known as an "uncompromising leader" after refusing to take part in a controversial election under military ruler General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in the 1980s, Zia broke through a male-dominated political landscape and transformed into one of Bangladesh's most formidable political leaders, the BBC report added.

Al Jazeera reported described her as Bangladesh’s first female prime minister and the second woman to lead a democratically elected government in a Muslim-majority country.

mirmostafiz@yahoo.com