Khaleda Zia, who has died at the age of 80, was Bangladesh's first female prime minister.
Her husband, Ziaur Rahman, a leading figure in the country's struggle for independence, was president in 1977. At the time, Ms. Zia was described as a shy housewife devoted to their two sons.
But, following her husband's assassination in 1981, she rose to lead his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and served two terms as prime minister - first in the 1990s and then in the early 2000s.
In the brutal world of Bangladeshi politics, she was accused of corruption and spent years in prison - but the charges were dropped after a 2024 uprising that saw her long-time rival, Sheikh Hasina, swept from power.
Begum Khaleda Zia was born in West Bengal in 1945. The daughter of a tea trader, she moved to what is now Bangladesh with her family after the partition of India. At the age of 15, she married Ziaur Rahman - then a young army officer.
In 1971, he joined a mutiny against West Pakistani forces and declared independence for Bangladesh. After the military seized power in 1977, Rahman declared himself president. He reintroduced political parties and a free media, and was later endorsed by popular vote.
He faced as many as 20 further military coups, and dealt with them brutally. There were reports of mass executions of soldiers. In 1981, he was assassinated by a group of army officers in Chittagong.
Until then, Khaleda Zia had kept a low profile and seemed to take little interest in public life. But she became a member of the BNP and rose to become its vice chairman.
In 1982, Bangladesh began nine years of military dictatorship, and Ms. Zia found herself organising the campaign for democracy. The army held occasional, heavily managed elections, but she refused to allow her party to take part. Before long, she was placed under house arrest.
Nonetheless, she continued to promote mass rallies and days of action that eventually forced the army into submission.
In 1991, Khaleda Zia and the BNP became the largest party in post-military elections, and she was sworn in as prime minister. Having absorbed most of the powers of the old presidency, she was now the first female leader of Bangladesh, and only the second woman to lead a Muslim country.
With Bangladeshi children receiving only two years of education on average, she made primary school free and mandatory for all.
But, five years later, she lost her bid for re-election to Sheikh Hasina's Awami League. In 2001, Ms. Zia had her revenge, having formed an alliance with a group of Islamist parties. Together, they won nearly two-thirds of the seats in parliament.
In her second term, she introduced a constitutional amendment to reserve 45 seats in the legislature for female MPs, and worked to educate young women - in a country where 70% of them were illiterate.
In October 2006, Ms. Zia stepped down ahead of a scheduled general election. But a wave of riots saw the military step in. New democratic elections were promised, but the poll ended up being delayed. The interim government banned most political activity and began a crackdown on high-level corruption.
A year later, Ms. Zia was arrested on charges of extortion and corruption. This followed the earlier detention of her rival Sheikh Hasina, the Awami leader and daughter of the first president of Bangladesh. Both women, who had alternated from government to opposition for the best part of two decades, were suddenly mired in court cases.
In 2008, her restrictions were lifted, and she participated in military-sponsored elections which ended in Sheikh Hasina forming a government. In 2011, a case was filed against Ms. Zia by the Anti-Corruption Commission, accusing her of corruption.
In 2018, Ms. Zia was convicted and jailed for five years after being found guilty of embezzling about $252,000 intended for an orphanage trust set up when she was prime minister. She became the only prisoner locked up in Dhaka's old - and now disused - central jail.
She denied wrongdoing, claiming the charges were politically motivated. A year later, at the age of 73, Ms. Zia was transferred to hospital for treatment for conditions including severe arthritis and uncontrolled diabetes. She was eventually released from prison on health grounds and told to remain at home.
In 2024, Sheikh Hasina's government was swept from power. A massive protest against quotas in public service employment turned deadly, leading to an anti-government uprising. Zia was released and allowed to travel for treatment.
In January 2025, she died in Dhaka after enduring months of poor health, leaving behind her elder son Tarique, who is seen as the frontrunner to succeed her in Bangladesh's political landscape.
