Women prime ministers in Asia

Prime Minister of India (1966-1977; 1980-1984)

11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan (1953–2007)

Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974

Sheikh Hasina Wazed is a Bangladeshi politician who served as Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2024. A daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, she is Bangladesh's longest-serving prime minister and one of the longest-serving female heads of government globally. She has also served as president of the Awami League since 1981.

Sanae Takaichi is a Japanese politician who has been Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since October 2025. She is the first woman to hold either of these positions in Japanese history. A member of the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003 and since 2005, she also held ministerial posts during the premierships of Shinzo Abe and Fumio Kishida.

Prime Minister of Ceylon (later Sri Lanka) from 1960–65, 1970–77, 1994–2000

Prime Minister of Thailand from 2011 to 2014

President of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005

Begum Khaleda Zia was a Bangladeshi politician who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006. She was the first female prime minister of Bangladesh and the second female prime minister in the Muslim world after Benazir Bhutto. She was the wife of the former president of Bangladesh and army chief, Ziaur Rahman. She was the longest serving chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from 1984 until her death in 2025.

Businesswoman and former Prime Minister of Thailand

Sushila Karki is a Nepalese lawyer and stateswoman who served as Chief Justice of Nepal from 2016 to 2017 and as interim prime minister of Nepal from 2025 to 2026. She became prime minister following the Gen Z-led protests of September 2025 that led to her predecessor’s resignation. Karki is the first woman in Nepal’s history to serve both as prime minister and as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal.

Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

Prime Minister Appointed of South Korea

Acting prime minister of Mongolia from 1999-07-22 to 1999-07-30