Today Marks the 82nd Birth Anniversary of the Late Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia

The 82nd birth anniversary of former Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia will be observed today with various programmes announced by the party.

The programmes include milad and doa mahfils at BNP offices and mosques across the country. A milad and doa mahfil will be held at the BNP central office in Nayapaltan at 11am today, with senior BNP leaders expected to attend. BNP leaders, activists and supporters at all levels have been urged to participate in the programmes, said a press release signed by BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Advocate Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

Begum Khaleda Zia died on December 30 last year at the age of 80. Then BNP Secretary General Mr. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced her death at Evercare Hospital, saying, “We had never thought we would have to stand before everyone with this news. We had hoped she would recover as before.” He said, “With a heavy heart, we say that at 6am, the mother of democracy, our guardian and the guardian of the nation, has left us.”

Her elder son and then acting BNP chairman Mr. Tarique Rahman, Mr. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and members of her medical board were present beside her at the time of her death. Khaleda Zia had long suffered from liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes and other health complications, along with chronic kidney, lung, heart and eye problems. She was admitted to hospital on November 23 last year after infections were detected in her heart and lungs. A medical board comprising specialists from Bangladesh, the UK, US, China and Australia supervised her treatment.

Known in Bangladesh politics as the “Uncompromising Leader”, Khaleda Zia served as prime minister three times from 1991 and was the country’s first woman prime minister and the second elected female head of government in the Muslim world. Born on August 15, 1945, in Dinajpur, she was the daughter of Iskandar Majumder and Toyeba Majumder. Her family’s ancestral home was in Feni. She studied at Dinajpur Government Girls’ High School and later Surendranath College.

She married Major Ziaur Rahman in 1960 and accompanied him on several state visits after he became president, meeting foreign leaders including British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. Following Ziaur Rahman’s death in a failed coup attempt in 1981, Khaleda Zia joined the BNP as a general member on January 2, 1982. She became vice-chairman in March 1983 and party chairperson in August 1984. She never lost an election in any constituency she contested. She was elected from five separate constituencies in the 1991-2001 general elections and won all three seats she contested in the 2008 election.