Maumoon Abdul Gayoom

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Maumoon Abdul Gayoom bigraphy, stories - 3rd President of the Maldives

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom : biography

29 December 1937 –

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (), GCMG, (born December 29, 1937) was the President of Maldives from 1978 to 2008. After serving as Minister of Transport, he was nominated as President by the Majlis (Parliament) of the Maldives and succeeded Ibrahim Nasir. Gayoom was defeated in the October 2008 presidential election – exactly 30 years to the day that he first came to power. Gayoom continued to serve as leader of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party, the current opposition party, until January 2010, when Gayoom said he was retiring from active politics. However, September 2011, he returned to the Maldivian political arena leading a new political party, the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

Post presidency

Philanthropy

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and his elder son, Farish Maumoon, have created a foundation called The Maumoon Foundation with the stated aim of helping poor and needy people.

Career and politics

Education and family life

Mamoon Abdul Gayoom is the son of Abdul Gayoom Ibrahim (Maafaiygey Seedhi Dhoni) and Khadheeja Moosa. His father had 25 children from 8 wives. Gayoom is the 10th child of his family.

Gayoom spent most of his youth in Egypt. He was part of a group of 15 students chosen at the initiative of Mohamed Amin Didi to get an education abroad. At the age of 10, in 1947, he embarked for Egypt. However, because of the troubles which led to the Arab-Israeli war of 1948–1949, his layover in Ceylon, scheduled to last several days, lasted for two and a half years during which he studied at the Royal College, Colombo.

He eventually reached Egypt in March 1950, after the end of the conflict.

Gayoom attended al-Azhar University. He spent six months learning Arabic. He joined the faculty and graduated with honors in 1966, at the top of his class. He was congratulated by Gamal Abdel Nasser. He also obtained another degree in the same field at the American University in Cairo.

During his studies, he led a group of 14 Maldivian students who sent a letter to Prime Minister Ibrahim Nasir. They asked him to reconsider his desire to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. Following this letter, their scholarships were removed and the students were taken under the care of the Egyptian government. This support stopped after graduation in 1966, however, and Gayoom was forced to end his studies.

In 1965, Gayoom met Nasreena Ibrahim, a student who had just arrived in Cairo from the Maldives for her studies. She was then 15 and Gayoom was 27. Four years later, they married in Cairo, on 14 July 1969. A few weeks after his marriage, he joined Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria as a lecturer in Islamic Studies and moved there with Nasreena. In 20 March 1970, Nasreena gave birth to twins, Dhunya Maumoon and Yumna Maumoon. Nasreena went back to Malé when expecting their third child. She gave birth to their first son, Farish, in Malé, on 31 March 1971. Nine years later, during Gayoom’s presidency, a second son, Ghassan, was born on 12 June 1980.

Early career in the Maldives

When his two-year contract with Ahmadu Bello University ended, he returned to the Maldives in 1971. Three weeks later, he joined the Aminiyya School as a teacher of English, arithmetic and Islam. In 1972, he was appointed as the manager of the government shipping department.

On 12 March 1973, Gayoom was placed under house-arrest for criticising President Ibrahim Nasir’s policies. He was tried in court and sentenced to banishment for four years on 14 May 1973. On 21 May, he was taken to Makunudhoo Island of Haa Dhaalu Atoll. Gayoom was released on 13 October 1973, after serving only five months, as a result of an amnesty following Nasir’s re-election for a second five-year term.

In 1974, Gayoom was appointed under-secretary in the Telecommunications Department. He was shortly thereafter promoted to director of the department. During this period, he worked as a part-time teacher in some private schools, teaching Islam, Arabic and English.

On 28 July 1974, Gayoom was again arrested for criticising Nasir’s policies. This time he was kept in solitary confinement in a prison in Malé nicknamed the ‘China Garden’, as Chinese fishermen were once detained there. This prison was later demolished during Gayoom’s presidency and the Islamic Centre was erected on the site. After 50 days in jail, he was set free, in September 1974.