Khaleda Zia

Begum Khaleda Zia (born August–September 1945) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006. She was the first female prime minister of Bangladesh and the second female prime minister in the Muslim world, after Benazir Bhutto. She is the widow of former president of Bangladesh and army commander, Ziaur Rahman. She has been the chairperson and leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since 1984, which was founded by her husband, Zia, in 1978.

Khaleda came to national attention as the First Lady of Bangladesh after her husband, Rahman, became the president in 1977. After Rahman's assassination in 1981, Khaleda joined politics and came to lead BNP. After a military coup in 1982, she helped lead the movement for democracy. She became the prime minister following the victory of BNP in 1991 Bangladeshi general election and served as prime minister until 1996. Her party came to power again in 2001, and she served as prime minister until 2006.

Following the end of her government's term in 2006, the scheduled January 2007 elections were delayed due to political violence and infighting, resulting in a bloodless military-backed takeover. The military-backed caretaker government charged Zia and her two sons with corruption. In 2018, Zia was sentenced to a total of 17 years in prison for the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case and the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case in 2018.

Zia was transferred to a hospital for medical treatment in April 2019. In March 2020, she was released on house arrest for six months on humanitarian grounds and prohibited from any involvement in politics. Subsequently, she was conditionally freed for medical treatment until 5 August 2024, after a mass uprising resulted in the incumbent prime minister fleeing to India and the Bangladesh president issuing a release order. On 27 November 2024, Zia was acquitted in the graft cases.