Asian Female World Leaders Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1916-2000) became the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka after her party won the general election in 1960. She served two more terms from 1970 to 1977 and from 1994 to 2000. She stepped down in August 2000 after her third term due to poor health and to allow the appointment of a younger leader.

She stepped into politics after her husband, the previous Sri Lankan Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, was killed in September 1959. She was educated in a Catholic school but remained a Buddhist throughout her life.

She died in October 2000, two months after stepping down as prime minister.

Answer: Golda Meir

Golda Meir (1898-1978) was born in Kiev and emigrated to the US in 1906. She was described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics, a phrase which was later used to describe Margaret Thatcher. First Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, used to call her "the best man in the government".

She resigned from the post in 1974 after the Yom Kippur War. In 1978, she passed away from lymphona.

Answer: Tsai Ing-wen

Tsai Ing-wen (born 1956) was a law professor. She became the seventh President of Taiwan under the 1947 Constitution, in office on 20 May 2016. She was the second president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). On 20 January 2020, she secured 57% of the popular votes with 8.2 million votes, 1.3 million more than her win in 2016.

Answer: Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. She was the third Indian Prime Minister who served from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian Prime Minister after her father who served more than 16 years. She served for 15 years and 350 days until she was assassinated by her own bodyguards.

Answer: Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) was the Pakistani Prime Minister from 1988 to 1990 and 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman to became the leader of a democratic country in a large Muslim nation. She was daughter of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) founder and former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

In 1982, she took over the leadership of PPP. After her stint as prime minister ended, amid a corruption scandal, she went into exile in the UK. In 2007, she returned to her country to participate in the 2008 general elections, but was assassinated in a rally at Rawalpindi on 27 December.

Answer: Park Guen-hye

Park Guen-hye (born 1952) was the eleventh South Korean President. She was the daughter of Park Chung Hee, third President in the 1960s who was assassinated in 1979. She served as the official First Lady of South Korea after her mother was killed in 1974. In 2017, she was found guilty by the courts for colluding with Choi Soon-nil to accept bribes and abuse position. She was sentenced to a 24-year jail sentence.

Answer: Corazon Aquino

Corazon Aquino (1993-2009) became the most prominent figure in the 1986 People Power Revolution in the Philippines which ousted the 22-year rule of Ferdinand Marcos. Her husband, Senator Benigno Jr. (a staunch critic of Marcos), was killed in 1983 after his return to the Philippines from exile in the US. Corazon was the named Time Magazine's "Woman of the Year" in 1986.

She never held any political position prior to become the eleventh President of the Philippines. Her son, Benigno "Noy-noy" Aquino III would serve as the fifteenth President.

Answer: Yingluck Shinawatra

Yingluck Shinawatra (born 1967) was a successful business woman before she came into politics. Her party won the general election in 2011 and she was elected as the 28th Prime Minister of Thailand. She was removed from her office by the Constitutional court of Thailand on May 2014 where she was found guilty on charges of abuse of power over the removal of national security chief Thawil Pliensri in 2011.

A military coup occurred in the same month where she was arrested together with former cabinet ministers and political leaders of all other parties.

They were held in the army camp for a few days.

Answer: Megawati Sukarnoputri

Megawati Sukarnoputri(born 1947) became the first female Indonesian President and the sixth woman to head a Muslim-majority country. From 1991 to 2001, she was the vice president to Abdurrahman Wahid. She took over from Wahid in 2001 when Wahid was removed from the office. She lost the Presidential election to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2004 and was defeated again by Yudhoyono in 2009.

Answer: Khaleda Zia

Khaleda Zia (born 1945) was first woman in her country to be appointed as Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996, and served her second term from 2001 to 2006. She became the second after Benazir Bhutto in the Muslim majority countries to serve as the leader of a democratic government. She was the wife of a former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman (1936-1981) who was assassinated by a faction of military officers in Bangladesh.