"The defining feature of her public life, however, was one of the world's longest-running and most bitter political feuds. For more than three decades Zia and her rival, Sheikh Hasina now exiled in India following her resignation after a violent uprising in mid-2024 contested the leadership of the south Asian nation, and sought to eclipse the other when in office."
"Both women inherited their positions through assassinations of people close to them, Hasina from her father, Mujibur Rahman, the founder of the nation after the 1971 split from Pakistan, and Zia from her husband, Ziaur Rahman, the country's first military ruler. It is a pattern familiar in south asia's dynastic politics: Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, the first female leader of a Muslim nation; Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka, the first woman elected prime minister anywhere; and Indira Gandhi in India."
Khaleda Zia served two terms as prime minister in the 1990s and early 2000s and was credited with increasing female education and empowerment. Her public life was dominated by a decades-long feud with Sheikh Hasina, who later went into exile in India after resigning following a violent mid-2024 uprising. Both women inherited political leadership amid assassinations of close relatives—Hasina after her father, Mujibur Rahman, and Zia after her husband, Ziaur Rahman—reflecting a pattern of dynastic politics in South Asia. Successive administrations were marked by accusations of vote-rigging, corruption, strikes, protests, parliamentary boycotts, caretaker governments, and military interventions, and political turmoil persisted throughout the period.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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