Across party lines, even from the mouths of her political opponents, there were prayers for her recovery. At her passing, the whole country is in mourning. In this corner of the world, where political conduct is rarely grounded in mutual respect, any attentive reader will understand how rare a sight this is. Some call her an uncompromising leader. Some, in her party, feel that she is a symbol of democracy.Begum Khaleda Zia’s name conjures up an entire era, a vast struggle, an unyielding resolve. A three-time prime minister and a woman who stood firm in the face of persecution, today she is no more, but she has left behind a political legacy that is not confined to just her party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).She was born on August 15, 1945 in Dinajpur. A life as an upper-class woman was what fate seemed to have written for her, only if, on May 30, 1981, her husband, the president of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman, had not been killed by a rebel group within the armed forces. Khaleda Zia was compelled to step out of the home to take the helm of the party. A newcomer to politics, the political reality of the country pulled Zia onto a long, turbulent, and conflict-ridden path. She began a struggle against the military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad.To bring an end to Ershad’s autocracy, Zia helped forge a seven-party alliance in 1983. While the Awami League under Sheikh Hasina’s leadership took part in the controversial and illegal elections of 1986, Khaleda Zia continued the movement. In the seven years spent fighting to restore democracy, she was arrested seven times. Yet her confidence and composure never once wavered. The 1990 mass uprising would not have reached its full fruition without her leadership. She earned the label of being an immovable leader and became the first woman prime minister of Bangladesh.After the dictatorship, the shattered economy, administration, and state institutions had to be rebuilt. Zia made mistakes, but under her rule, the country’s sovereignty, independence, and dignity were never called into question. The country passed through difficult times, but was never at risk of losing its status as a democracy.In the 1994 Magura by-election, the Awami League alleged massive vote rigging. Opposition parties claimed that fair elections were not possible under a partisan government. At that time Khaleda Zia had said, “No one is neutral except madmen and children.” Afterwards, through the vigorous movement of the Awami League, Jamaat-e-Islami and other opposition parties, the caretaker government system was introduced in 1996.In 2001, the BNP-Jamaat alliance came to power. The coalition government came under intense pressure over allegations of corruption, militant attacks and other issues. The grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina on August 21, 2004, and cases like the ten-truck arms haul, made the government fiercely controversial. Added to this was the opposition’s allegation that Bangladesh had become the “world champion in corruption”.Through this, for Khaleda Zia, democracy was not just a political slogan, it was her personal belief, her personal morality. There is her famous statement: “I have no address abroad. Bangladesh is my last and only address.” From 2009 to 2024, attempts were made at every step to humiliate her. She was forcibly evicted from the house filled with her husband’s memories and kept in solitary confinement. Endless ambiguity was created around the question of her medical treatment. Then, during the coronavirus period, she was granted bail so that she would not die inside prison. In 2021, when she was in the ICU, her treatment requirements called for a trip abroad. But Sheikh Hasina said, “I have allowed her to stay at home, allowed her to receive treatment, what more do you want?”Had Khaleda Zia she wished, she could have struck a deal, secured her own safety and gone overseas. But there is no denying that she chose the difficult path. Her tenure saw Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – Sheikh Hasina’s father and the father of the nation – awarded the Independence Award. In the politics of the subcontinent, it is rare for such a non-partisan honour to be bestowed.After Sheikh Hasina fled in the mass uprising of July 2024, the president pardoned Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust case. Even then, her lawyers sought a hearing on the appeal because for the word “pardon” to be there, Zia would have had to commit a crime. Bangladesh is in turmoil as she leaves and so it feels even more that with her passing, the country has lost an era. A loud voice in the struggle against dictatorship is gone.Khaleda Zia did not get the full measure of respect she deserved, but history will perhaps give it to her. Time is the ultimate judge and in the court of time, Khaleda Zia will forever stand firm as an uncompromising leader.Sadiq Mahbub Islam is an independent writer. This article is in collaboration with Inscript.