haleda Zia was born to Iskandar
Majumder, a businessman, and Taiyaba Majumder at Dinajpur in
1945. Third among three sisters and two brothers, she passed
the matriculation examinations in 1960 from the Dinajpur Government
School and got enrolled in the Surendranath College, Dinajpur
The same year, she got married to Ziaur Rahman of Bogra,
then a captain in the Pakistan Army. Her husband, one of the
prominent heroes of the country's Liberation War, later became
the president of Bangladesh and formed the Bangladesh Nationalist
Party (BNP). Khaleda continued her studies until 1965 when
she went to join her husband in West Pakistan.
Until the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman in an
abortive military putsch in Chittagong on May 30, 1981, Khaleda
Zia had taken little interest in either politics or public
life. Even when her husband was propelled to power after the
political changes in 1975, she remained a shy and withdrawn
housewife who devoted most of her time rearing up her two
sons.
In March 1983, Justice Abdus Sattar, the then acting president
and chairman BNP, appointed Khaleda Zia a vice-chairman of
the BNP. On February 1984, she became the chairperson as Justice
Sattar retired from politics. On August 10 the same year,
the party elected her the chairperson.
Khaleda was detained seven times during almost nine years
of autocratic rule of Hosain Ershad. In the face of mass upsurge
spearheaded by the seven-party alliance, led by Khaleda, and
the eight-party combine, led by Ershad resigned on December
6, 1990 and handed over power to neutral caretaker government,
bringing an end to his nine-year autocratic rule.
In 1991, she became the country's first woman prime minister
after a free and fair general election on February 27, 1991
and formed the government.
She became prime minister for the second consecutive term
after the BNP had emerged landslide victors in the February
15, 1996 general election to the sixth Jatiya Sangsad. She
has been elected as a member of the Parliament from the constituencies
Bogra-7.
In the June 12, 1996 parliamentary elections, the BNP lost
to the Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina but emerged as the
largest opposition party in the country parliamentary history
with 116 seats.
When in power, the government of Khaleda made considerable
progress in the education sector, introducing compulsory free
primary education, free education of girls up to class ten,
stipend for the girl students and food for education programme.
It also increased the age-limit for entry to government services
from 27 years to 30 years and provided highest budgetary allocation
in the education sector.
Aiming to return to power, the BNP formed a four-party opposition
alliance on January 6, 1999 with the Jatiya Party, the Jamaat-e-Islami
and the Islami Oikya Jote and launched several agitation programmes
against the ruling AL.
The alliance then participated in the October 1 general
election and won the polls with two-thirds majority. Khaleda
Zia has been elected as a Member of the Parliament from 2
constituencies of Bogra 6 and 7. On October 10, 2001 Khaleda
Zia, Chairperson of BNP, was sworn as Prime Minister of Bangladesh,
after an election in which a surprising 75 percent of the
registered voters went to the polls. She swept to victory
with a campaign against lawlessness and corruption, but it
was her Bangladesh Nationalist Party's disciplined alliance
with two Islamic parties and another small faction that ensured
the coalition's a two-third majority in the new Parliament.
"My government's first priority will be to eliminate terrorism
and stamp out corruption," she said after the ceremony. "We
will also try to ensure economic emancipation for the vast
majority."
