Both were strong nationalists and initiators of radical changes in their countries’ domestic and foreign policies  

The Bangladeshi leader Khaleda Zia, who died of multiple illnesses in Dhaka on Tuesday at the age of 80, was akin to Sri Lanka’s leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike. 

Both women came from similar backgrounds and were pitchforked into power by the hand of fate. But when ensconced in office, they proved to be very effective and innovative both on the national and international front. They were resolute defenders of their countries’ interests when confronted by foreign powers. Both became Prime Minister three times.  

Khaleda and Sirima (short for Sirimavo) brought about key constitutional, educational and economic reforms. Both were persecuted by those in power, Khaleda Zia much more than Sirima. While Khaleda was imprisoned multiple times, Sirima was denied her civic rights. 

Neither Khaleda nor Sirima had attended university. They were housewives with no political involvement prior to their entry into politics. They were married to national heroes, Khaleda to President Ziaur Rahman who fired the first shot in the armed revolt against Pakistan and declared the independence of Bangladesh in March 1971. Sirima was married to SWRD Bandaranaike, an iconic anti-British nationalist who removed British military bases from the island,  then known as Ceylon. 

Both Khaleda and Sirima were thrust into politics after their husbands were assassinated by elements who they themselves created – militant Buddhists in the case of SWRD Bandaranaike and a rebellious junior army officers, in the case Ziaur Rahman. 

Instead of withdrawing into the shell of widowhood, and undeterred by the lack of political experience, Khaleda and Sirima plunged into the hurly burly of their countries’ violence-prone politics with gusto. Khaleda led the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Sirima, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), with panache, both parties founded by their late husbands.  

While Sirima smoothly inherited the Prime Ministership from her husband SWARD Bandaranaike and became the world’s first woman Prime Minister, Khaleda had a rougher passage. She had to lead a mass movement to overthrow the incumbent, military dictator Gen. H.M.Ershad.  When Ershad imposed Martial Law........

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