Many events throughout history have been recorded in Ramadan’s memory over the years. Al-Hal Net tracks them for you and highlights the most notable events associated with Ramadan’s historical memory.
In today’s installment of the “Happened in Ramadan” series, Al-Hal Net recalls the most important events of 28 Ramadan that took place in the region and the world, whether in modern history or in earlier decades and centuries.
Indira Gandhi
On 28 Ramadan in 1966, Indira Gandhi assumed the post of Prime Minister of India. She is the only woman to have held the office of Prime Minister of India to this day, serving three consecutive terms (1966–1977) and a fourth term (1980–1984), which ended with her assassination at the hands of an extremist Sikh opponent in 1984. She was the president of the Indian National Congress and its central figure, and she was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister.
Gandhi was the second woman in the world to hold the office of prime minister after Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka.
Indira was known for her inclination toward the idea of non-alignment in cooperation with Gamal Abdel Nasser and Marshal Tito.
Her name was known throughout the world as India’s prime minister; she was a woman of great stature on the world stage, and under her leadership India became a strong country that achieved progress in various fields.
She also brought a new kind of dynamism to international politics through her defense of the poor and underdeveloped countries of the world, and she was also among those who struggled to achieve world peace.
In 1966, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Nehru’s successor, died, so the ruling Congress Party decided to appoint Indira as prime minister. She was the first woman to become prime minister in India, and the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, who had been India’s first prime minister after the departure of the British occupation forces. Indira built a strong army for India, managed to produce an Indian nuclear bomb, and made all of India’s neighbors fear its might. In 1971, she invaded East Pakistan and established the state of Bangladesh there, achieving the first victory over Pakistan.
Her son Rajiv Gandhi later became prime minister. Although she bore the surname Gandhi, she was not related to Mahatma Gandhi, who helped India gain its independence.
The Disappearance of Musa al-Sadr
On 28 Ramadan in 1978, Imam Musa al-Sadr disappeared while in Libya. He was a Lebanese cleric and political leader who founded the Amal Movement.
He was born in the city of Qom in Iran, where he pursued academic and religious studies. He left for Najaf to complete his religious studies, but returned to Iran after the 1958 coup.
After several years, al-Sadr went to the city of Tyre as an envoy of Ayatollahs Hussein Borujerdi and Mohsen al-Hakim. Al-Sadr was able to build a vibrant community for the Shiite population in Lebanon, and he founded many organizations, schools, and charities, including the Lebanese Resistance Regiments, known as the Amal Movement.
On 25 August 1978, Musa al-Sadr left for Libya with two of his companions to meet government officials at the invitation of President Muammar Gaddafi. The three were last seen on 31 August, and nothing was ever heard from them again. Many theories emerged about the circumstances of their disappearance, but none of them has been proven. Al-Sadr’s fate remains unknown to this day.
Musa al-Sadr declined Borujerdi’s offer to go to Italy as his representative, preferring instead to move to Najaf. There, Mohsen al-Hakim persuaded him to accept an invitation extended to him to become a leading Shiite figure in Tyre, succeeding Abdul Hussein Sharafeddine, who died in 1957. He then left for Tyre at the end of 1959 as an envoy of Borujerdi and al-Hakim. At the request of some clerics, al-Sadr traveled several times to Iran to deliver various lectures.
