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Bangladesh’s first woman prime minister, Catholic school alumna, dies at 80
Begum Khaleda Zia, former Bangladesh prime minister and chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, in 2010 at the Diploma Engineers Institute, Dhaka. | Credit: Mohammed Tawsif Salam, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dec 30, 2025 / 19:22 pm
Catholic leaders in Bangladesh are mourning the death of Begum Khaleda Zia, an alumna of Catholic-run St. Joseph’s School who became the country’s first woman prime minister and maintained a lifelong bond with the Catholic community. She died Tuesday morning local time at age 80 at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka following a prolonged illness.
“She knew us and we had a good relationship with her,” said Bishop Gervas Rozario, vice president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh. “She protected minorities when she was in power.”
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which she led for decades, announced her passing. “Amma (Mother) is no more,” acting chairman Tarique Rahman told senior leaders. The interim government, led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, declared a three-day state of mourning and a public holiday for her funeral, to be held Wednesday at the National Parliament grounds.From ‘putul’ to prime minister
Khaleda Zia’s journey began in the classrooms of Catholic-run schools. Born in 1945 in Jalpaiguri, she spent her formative years at St. Joseph’s School in Dinajpur, where she was affectionately nicknamed “putul” (doll) by her principal, Sister Pia Fernandes.
Father Albert Rozario recalled a memory from her time as the president’s wife. When taking her son for an admission test at St. Joseph’s School in Dhaka, she waited outside the gate until the principal, realizing who she was, invited her inside.
Politics was not her chosen path. It was thrust upon her by tragedy following the 1981 assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman. As the BNP reeled from the loss of its founder, party leaders turned to the grieving widow to unite them and carry forward his legacy.
She rose to the challenge, becoming BNP chairperson in 1984. The woman once nicknamed “doll” as a girl led the movement against the military dictatorship of Hussain Muhammad Ershad, earning a reputation as an “uncompromising leader.”
Her perseverance paid off with an electoral victory in 1991, making her the first woman prime minister of Bangladesh.Supporter of Christians
Her tenure was defined by reforms. She restored the parliamentary system and instituted the caretaker government model to oversee elections — a system meant to ensure fairness. She introduced free education for girls up to grade 10 and stipend programs for rural female students, boosting enrollment and literacy.
“She played a significant role in increasing access to education, expanding opportunities for women and girls and strengthening basic social services,” Bishop Rozario noted.
Her political life included three terms (1991–1996, a brief period in 1996, and 2001–2006) and intense rivalry. She endured imprisonment on corruption charges in 2018, release in 2020, and was finally acquitted in 2025 after a legal battle. Through it all, she remained a central figure in the nation’s consciousness.
For the Christian community, she was an ally. Father Albert Rozario, who celebrated Christmas with her three times, remembered her inclusive spirit. “She used to say, ‘Christmas is not only for Christians, it is for people of all religions.’” That she died during the Christmas season has added a layer of resonance for many.
Her passing has drawn condolences from across South Asia. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted her “important contributions … to India-Bangladesh relations.” Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is traveling to Dhaka to pay his last respects alongside dignitaries from Pakistan, Bhutan, and the Maldives.
In a televised address, Chief Adviser Yunus captured the national sentiment: “Today, our entire nation stands still in deep grief and sorrow… With her death, the nation has lost a great guardian.”
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Sumon Corraya is a freelance journalist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who specializes in reporting on the Christian community, with a particular focus on the Catholic Church.
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“I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning” (1 John 2:12-13a).
It’s the year’s end, and I’m desperately trying to pump out a few last-minute reviews of a few of the books I’ve enjoyed from 2025. The lines above, taken from the first epistle of John the Evangelist, appropriately speak to the subject matter of this review: fathers and their children.
I read from and wrote reflections in A Dad Is Born by James R. Walters (New City Press, 2025) over the past nine months. A book for expectant dads, I had the most blessed excuse to follow along for each week of my wife’s pregnancy with this splendid little devotional.
Unlike other journals and writing devotionals, this book hasn’t the slightest possibility of being discarded after the season for which it was meant. It is more personal than some devotionals. This is because the subject matter is one that immediately relates to the reader, the father of a little baby growing in utero. The intimacy it extends also comes from the anecdotes offered by Walters himself about the expectancy, delivery, and raising of his two daughters. Lastly, it is personal in that this is not merely a devotional for dad but, in its end goal, is a gift for the child whom mom and dad are anxiously awaiting. I can say, with no small amount of pride, that when she is old enough and the time is right, I will present to my daughter, Elizabeth, this copy of A Dad Is Born, in which she will find the ponderings and palpitations of her father’s heart for every week of her development in mom’s womb, from her first trimester till birth.
Each week, Walters offers a reflection which weaves together quotes from Sacred Scripture, words of wisdom from saints and sages (including Pope Francis, Augustine, Aquinas, Dorothy Day, Henri Nouwen, and so many others), the scientific understanding of your baby’s stage of growth, memories of his own paternal experiences, and a prayer. After all of this, there is a blank page devoted to a weekly Love Note to the reader’s child. This devotional is much more than merely a collection of explanations. It invites the reader (the expectant father) to become a writer in his own right and a writer in the most charitable sense: a communicator with those whom he loves and cares for. This is a book that I feel may help dads to cultivate that love for the unborn child in mom’s belly before they get the extraordinary opportunity to see their child face-to-face.
The short prayers that Walters offers are directed to God the Father, the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph. In fact, Walters subtly stresses the significance of St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus – as is only proper. Other books about Catholic fatherhood stress the saint’s importance as well, and how could they not? Joseph’s lack of complaining, his hard work, and his willingness to abandon his will and intentions to the Divine Will are nothing short of heroic virtue, the sort of selfless virtue men, and especially fathers, are called to live by.
Walters notes the importance of recognizing that we ourselves are God’s children, sons of the Father, through a quote from Pope Francis: “To be sons and daughters is the fundamental condition for knowing God’s love, which is the ultimate source of this authentic love.” As parents, we must realize that we, too, are children of our Father who art in Heaven as well as children of our biological parents – a point made by other Catholic writers such as Sam Guzman in The Catholic Gentleman. Knowing God’s infinite love for us, we are called as parents to reflect this deep and selfless love to our children. We who know Him Who is from the beginning must show forth His love to others, especially our own children, and introduce them to Love Himself.
As Walters reminisces about his family’s experiences, the scenes strike the reader as readily relatable and authentically realistic. While painting a cabinet for his soon-to-be-born child, Walters writes that the exercise “became an act of love and service, as well as a challenge in developing a new skill.” While baby grows, dad should be growing too. Even after my daughter was born, just days before Christmas, there has been much room for spiritual and emotional growth on my part. Walters remembers the other activities that led to preparing the baby room for his daughter: “There was other furniture to build, leading to an increase in prayers to St. Joseph.” A changing table was among the much-needed furniture. “Ten hours later, with some prayers and expletives along the way,” Walters recalls, “this act of love was more than just checking off another item from the to-do list; it was one step closer to creating a home for my baby...Furniture is not the only self-assembly required as you are rebuilding yourself in anticipation of baby’s arrival.”
This is so true. And, unfortunately for me, the prayers mingled with expletives during many tasks I find difficult is much too common. It hits close to home. As did Walters’ later reflection on driving slowly home from the hospital after the birth of his daughter. That is a path I’ve taken as well. Regarding this slow, delicate trek from hospital to home that many a father must make, Walters wonders “if we could approach all life with that same appreciation, caution, and sensitivity.” I wonder too. That’s what St. Joseph did. Maybe that’s what being a father looks like. That’s the protocol for fostering another Holy Family in miniature.
If you or someone you know is an expectant father, A Dad Is Born is a charming gift to a new paterfamilias, which will also, in turn, many years hence, be an intimate gift to their child.
https://youtu.be/mVyYRa52gco?si=Y0pmQ2Xj9_fY4N73
https://youtu.be/3n7eJP1271c?si=leWNlpDWMED1Zp-g
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