Mohammad-Javad Bahonar

Mohammad-Javad Bahonar (Persian: محمدجواد باهنر‎, 5 September 1933 – 30 August 1981) was a Shia Iranian theologian and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Iran for less than one month in August 1981.[2] Bahonar and other members of Mohammad-Ali Rajai's government were assassinated by Mujahideen-e Khalq.[3]

Mohammad-Javad Bahonar
محمدجواد باهنر
48th Prime Minister of Iran
In office
4 August 1981 – 30 August 1981
PresidentMohammad-Ali Rajai
Preceded byMohammad-Ali Rajai
Succeeded byReza Mahdavi Kani (Acting)
Minister of Education
In office
10 August 1980 – 10 August 1981
PresidentAbolhassan Banisadr
Prime MinisterMohammad-Ali Rajai
Preceded byMohammad-Ali Rajai
Succeeded byAli Akbar Parvaresh
Member of the Parliament of Iran
In office
28 May 1980 – 10 August 1980
ConstituencyTehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr
Majority1,385,197 (64.8%)
Member of Assembly of Experts for Constitution
In office
15 August 1979 – 15 November 1979
ConstituencyKerman Province
Majority205,765 (80.2%)
Personal details
Born(1933-09-05)5 September 1933
Kerman, Imperial State of Persia
Died30 August 1981(1981-08-30) (aged 47)
Tehran, Iran
Resting placeHafte Tir Mausoleum
Political partyIslamic Republican Party
SpouseZahra Eynakian (1966–1981, his death)[1]
RelativesMohammad-Reza Bahonar (brother)
Alma materUniversity of Tehran
Signature

Early life

Mohammad Javad Bahonar was born on 3 September 1933 in Kerman, Iran.[4] His father was a simple tradesman and had a little shop in the city of Kerman.[5] He was the second child of nine, and his family was very poor. As a child, he was taught the Quran at the local Makk-tab-Khaneh (parochial school attended by the students very often at the house of local mullah before national school system was put in place) also learning to read and write Persian. Guided by the Ayatollah Haghighi, he studied at the Masoumieh seminary. At the same time he could obtain the degree of fifth of ancient school.[6]

Education

Bahonar passed his primary school at Masoumieh School of Kerman. In 1953, he went to Qom Seminary and attended in the class of Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iranian revolution.[7][3][8] He received a PhD in theology from the University of Tehran.[7] Also, he was faculty member of the Tehran University and taught religious lessons and theology.[3][7][9]

Revolutionary activities

Before Iranian revolution

Bahonar was a reviler of the Pahlavi dynasty and had activities against Mohammad Reza Shah that led to imprisonment him in 1963,[4] 1964, and 1975.[3][9] On 1963, he was jailed for opposing the Shah's White Revolution.[4] Also, during exile of Khomeini in Iraq and France, he continued his revolutionary activities and was an influential member among Khomeini's followers.[9][3][7][10] Bahonar along with Morteza Motahari was active speaker of Hosseiniyeh Ershad, a religious lecture hall in the Tehran.[9]

After Iranian revolution

Upon release from custody, Bahonar did not engage in further activism until Khomeini became Iran's de facto ruler. For his service in the revolution, Bahonar became the new government's ministry of culture and Islamic guidance in 1981, and was responsible for censoring any media disapproved by Muslim leaders in Tehran. He also directed a purge of all secular influence from Iranian Universities.[11]

He also became a founding member of the Islamic Republican party[12] and an original member of the Council of Revolution of Iran. Also, he was member of Assembly of Experts.[9] Bahonar along with Mohammad Ali Rajai purging Iranian universities of western cultural influences which known as the Islamic Cultural Revolution.[3][7] After the assassination of Mohammad Beheshti on 28 June 1981, he was appointed general secretary of the party where he was also a member of the central committee.[3][12] Bahonar served as the minister of culture and Islamic guidance under Mohammad Ali Rajai's prime ministry from March 1981 to August 1981. When Rajai became president on 5 August 1981, he chose Bahonar as his prime minister.[13]

Assassination
Main article: 1981 Iranian Prime Minister's office bombing

Bahonar was assassinated along with Rajai and other members of Islamic Republican Party when a bomb exploded at the party's office in Tehran on 30 August 1981.[4][14][15][13] In Iran, this explosion is known as the Hashteh-Shahrivar bombing. The bomb was set off when one of the victims opened a briefcase. The briefcase was carried by Massoud Keshmiri, a security official at the Islamic Republican Party, to the meeting. One week later, Keshmiri was announced as responsible for planning and execution of the assassination.[8] Keshmiri was identified as an operative of Mujahedin that was supported by Saddam Hussein.[4][3] He tried to assassinate Rajai and Bahonar on 22 August when Rajai introduced his cabinet to Ruhollah Khomeini. Ahmad Khomeini explained that Keshmiri was with Rajai when they came to see Imam Khomeini. He had a suitcase but they did not allow him to bring it.[8] He died a week before his 48th birthday.

Iranian authorities announced that Massoud Keshmiri, "a close aide to the late President Muhammad Ali Rajai and secretary of the Supreme Security Council, had been responsible." Keshmiri, an MEK member who was thought to have died in the explosion, "was accorded a martyr's funeral" and was "buried alongside Rajai and Bahonar."[16][17][18][19] Various MEK supporters were arrested and executed in reprisal, but Kashmiri apparently slipped through the dragnet.[20] The reaction to both bombings was intense with many arrests and executions of MEK and other leftist groups.[21]

See also

References
  1. شهید باهنر به روایت همسر
  2. Robin B. Wright (2010). The Iran Primer: Power, Politics, and U.S. Policy. US Institute of Peace Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-1-60127-084-9.
  3. "Mohammad Javad Bahonar (Prime minister of Iran)". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  4. Michael Newton (17 April 2014). Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-1-61069-286-1.
  5. "An index of memories of Mohammad Javad Bahona". Maryrdom and Sacrifice. Archived from the original on 18 January 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  6. Ensari(in Persian) Archived 20 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Joint Crisis: Supreme Defense Council of Iran, 1980" (PDF). Harvard Model United Nations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  8. Baqer Moin (1999). Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah. I.B.Tauris. p. 242. ISBN 978-1-85043-128-2.
  9. John H. Lorentz (14 April 2010). The A to Z of Iran. Scarecrow Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-4617-3191-7.
  10. Manouchehr Ganji (2002). Defying the Iranian Revolution: From a Minister to the Shah to a Leader of Resistance. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-275-97187-8.
  11. Michael Newton (2014). "Bahonar, Mohammad-Javad (1933–1981)". Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-61069-286-1.
  12. Asayesh, Hossein; Adlina Ab. Halim; Jayum A. Jawan; Seyedeh Nosrat Shojaei (March 2011). "Political Party in Islamic Republic of Iran: A Review". Journal of Politics and Law. 4 (1). doi:10.5539/jpl.v4n1p221. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  13. Glenn E. Curtis; Eric Hooglund (18 July 2008). Iran: A Country Study. Government Printing Office. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8444-1187-3.
  14. The Pearson General Knowledge Manual 2010 (New ed.). Pearson Education India. 1 January 2010. p. 1. ISBN 978-81-317-2790-4. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  15. Nikou, Semira N. "Timeline of Iran's Political Events". United States Institute of Peace. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  16. Moin 2001, pp. 242–3.
  17. James Dorsey (15 September 1981), "Iran's rebels getting bolder day by day", The Christian Science Monitor, retrieved 1 June 2018
  18. "Iran: Secret agent was bomber". The Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. 14 September 1981. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  19. Hiro, Dilip (2013). Iran Under the Ayatollahs (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-04381-0.
  20. Michael Newton (2014). "Bahonar, Mohammad-Javad (1933–1981)". Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-61069-286-1. Although the Bahonar-Rajai assassination was solved with identification of bomber Massoud Kashmiri as an MEK agent he remained unpunished. Various mujahedin were arrested and executedin reprisal, but Kashmiri apparently slipped through the dragnet.
  21. Moin 2001, p. 243.
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