{"id":75906,"date":"2026-01-08T23:37:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T14:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jan\/08\/khaleda-zia-obituary"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:37:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T14:37:40","slug":"khaleda-zia-obituary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=75906","title":{"rendered":"Khaleda Zia obituary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Twice prime minister of Bangladesh credited with improving the country\u2019s economy and empowering women<\/p>\n<p>Khaleda Zia, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/dec\/30\/khaleda-zia-first-female-bangladesh-prime-minister-dies-aged-80\">who has died aged 80<\/a> \u2013 although her age was disputed \u2013 was the first female prime minister of Bangladesh, and was credited with an increase in female education and empowerment during her two terms in office, in the 1990s and early 2000s. The defining feature of her public life, however, was one of the world\u2019s longest-running and most bitter political feuds.<\/p>\n<p>For more than three decades Zia and her rival, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sheikh_Hasina\">Sheikh Hasina<\/a> \u2013 now exiled in India following her resignation after a violent uprising in mid-2024 \u2013 contested the leadership of the south Asian nation, and sought to eclipse the other when in office.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jan\/08\/khaleda-zia-obituary\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twice prime minister of Bangladesh credited with improving the country\u2019s economy and empowering womenKhaleda Zia, who has died aged 80 \u2013 although her age was disputed \u2013 was the first female prime minister of Bangladesh, and was credited with an increas&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[327,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bangladesh","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75907,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75906\/revisions\/75907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}