US City Honors Bangladesh's Late Ex-PM Khaleda Zia with Street Renaming

Hamtramck, the first Muslim-majority city in the United States, has paid tribute to Bangladesh's late three-time Prime Minister Khaleda Zia by renaming a street in her honor. The city's council approved the proposal to rename Carpenter Street as Khaleda Zia Street, a decision confirmed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on its official Facebook page. According to local reports, the street renaming initiative was led by four Bangladeshi-American councillors serving on the Hamtramck City Council. This is not the first time a Bangladeshi leader has been honored in the US; a Chicago street was previously named after the late President Ziaur Rahman. Khaleda Zia, who passed away on December 30, served as Bangladesh's Prime Minister three times. She was laid to rest with state honors in Dhaka alongside her husband, Zia ur Rehman. Hamtramck, a city within Detroit, has a unique history. It was named after a French-Canadian soldier and was initially a predominantly Polish-American community. However, waves of immigration in the late 20th century transformed the city into the first Muslim-majority city in the US. Today, Hamtramck boasts the highest percentage of immigrants in Michigan, the largest concentration of Bangladeshi immigrants in the state, and the second-highest percentage of Arab residents in the country.