orig. Khaleda Majumdar
born Aug. 15, 1945, Dinājpur district, India
Politician who served as prime minister of Bangladesh.
In 1959 she married Zia ur-Rahman, a leader in the fight for the independence of Bangladesh, then part of India. Her husband became president of Bangladesh in 1977, and after his assassination in 1981 she became politically active. In 1984 she assumed the leadership of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Zia was arrested repeatedly during the dictatorship of Hossain Mohammad Ershad in the 1980s, but in 1991 she led the opposition to victory and became prime minister. Her overwhelming reelection victory in February 1996 was tainted by an opposition-led boycott of the voting, and, after a wave of strikes and protests, she resigned the following month. In 2001 Zia was again elected prime minister.