Mohammad-Javad Bahonar

{{Short description|Iranian Islamic cleric and politician (1933–1981)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| image = Mohammad Javad Bahonar.jpg

| name = Mohammad-Javad Bahonar

| native_name = {{Nobold|{{lang|fa|محمدجواد باهنر}}}}

| caption =

| order = 43rd

| office = Prime Minister of Iran

| term_start = 4 August 1981

| term_end = 30 August 1981

| president = Mohammad-Ali Rajai

| predecessor = Mohammad-Ali Rajai

| successor = Reza Mahdavi Kani (Acting)

| office2 = Minister of Education

| term_start2 = 10 August 1980

| term_end2 = 10 August 1981

| president2 = Abolhassan Banisadr

| primeminister2 = Mohammad-Ali Rajai

| predecessor2 = Mohammad-Ali Rajai

| successor2 = Ali Akbar Parvaresh

| office3 = Member of the Parliament of Iran

| term_start3 = 28 May 1980

| term_end3 = 10 August 1980

| constituency3 = Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr

| majority3 = 1,385,197 (64.8%)

| office5 = Member of Assembly of Experts for Constitution

| term_start5 = 15 August 1979

| term_end5 = 15 November 1979

| constituency5 = Kerman province

| majority5 = 205,765 (80.2%)

| birth_date = {{birth date|1933|9|5|df=y}}

| birth_place = Kerman, Imperial State of Iran

| death_date = {{death date and age|1981|8|30|1933|9|5|df=y}}

| death_place = Tehran, Iran

| resting_place = Hafte Tir Mausoleum

| alma_mater = University of Tehran

| party = Islamic Republican Party

| spouse = Zahra Eynakian {{small|(1966–1981, his death)}}[http://www.hawzah.net/fa/Article/View/81657 شهید باهنر به روایت همسر]

| relatives = Mohammad-Reza Bahonar {{small|(brother)}}

| signature = Mohammad-Javad Bahonar signature.svg

}}

Mohammad-Javad Bahonar ({{langx|fa|محمدجواد باهنر}}{{ltr}}, 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.{{cite book|author=Robin B. Wright|title=The Iran Primer: Power, Politics, and U.S. Policy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDgwl59s_hUC&pg=PA221|year=2010|publisher=US Institute of Peace Press|isbn=978-1-60127-084-9|page=221}} Bahonar and other members of Mohammad-Ali Rajai's government were assassinated by Mujahideen-e Khalq.{{cite encyclopedia| url=http://www.britannica.com/biography/Mohammad-Javad-Bahonar | title=Mohammad Javad Bahonar (Prime minister of Iran) | encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica| date=25 April 2024 }}

Early life

Mohammad Javad Bahonar was born on 3 September 1933 in Kerman, Iran.{{cite book|author=Michael Newton|title=Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F4-dAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|date=17 April 2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-286-1|pages=27–28}} His father was a simple tradesman and had a little shop in the city of Kerman.{{cite web|title=An index of memories of Mohammad Javad Bahona|url=http://navideshahed.com/en/index.php?Page=definition&UID=85017|publisher=Maryrdom and Sacrifice|access-date=2 February 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100118124048/http://navideshahed.com/en/index.php?Page=definition&UID=85017|archive-date=18 January 2010}} He was the second child of nine in a very poor family. 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 in 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.[http://www.ensani.ir/fa/content/79974/default.aspx Ensari](in Persian) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320172253/http://www.ensani.ir/fa/content/79974/default.aspx |date=20 March 2018 }}

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. He received a PhD in theology from the University of Tehran.{{cite web|title=Joint Crisis: Supreme Defense Council of Iran, 1980|url=http://www.harvardmun.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/JCCIran1.pdf|publisher=Harvard Model United Nations|access-date=3 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005004228/http://www.harvardmun.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/JCCIran1.pdf|archive-date=5 October 2013|url-status=dead}} Also, he was faculty member of the Tehran University and taught theology.{{cite book|author=John H. Lorentz|title=The A to Z of Iran|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oV9WwxXbCB8C&pg=PA44|date=14 April 2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-1-4617-3191-7|page=44}}

Revolutionary activities

= Before Iranian revolution =

Bahonar was a reviler of the Pahlavi dynasty and had activities against Mohammad Reza Shah that led to his imprisonment in 1963, 1964, and 1975. On 1963, he was jailed for opposing the Shah's White Revolution. Also, during the time of Khomeini's exile to Iraq and France, he continued his revolutionary activities and was an influential member among Khomeini's followers.{{cite book|author=Manouchehr Ganji|title=Defying the Iranian Revolution: From a Minister to the Shah to a Leader of Resistance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NboVl-CeYs0C&pg=PR26|year=2002|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-97187-8|page=26}} Bahonar along with Morteza Motahari was active speaker of Hosseiniyeh Ershad, a religious lecture hall in the Tehran.

= 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 minister 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.{{cite book|author=Michael Newton|title=Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia|volume=1|date=2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-286-1|page=27|entry=Bahonar, Mohammad-Javad (1933–1981)}}

He became a founding member of the Islamic Republican party{{cite journal | url=http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jpl/article/view/9606/6898 | title=Political Party in Islamic Republic of Iran: A Review | date=March 2011 | access-date=29 July 2013 | last=Asayesh | first=Hossein | journal=Journal of Politics and Law | volume=4 | issue=1 | author2=Adlina Ab. Halim | author3=Jayum A. Jawan | author4=Seyedeh Nosrat Shojaei| doi=10.5539/jpl.v4n1p221 | doi-access=free }} and an original member of the Council of Revolution of Iran. He was also a member of the Assembly of Experts. Bahonar along with Mohammad Ali Rajai purged Iranian universities of western cultural influences in what is known as the Islamic Cultural Revolution. 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. 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.{{cite book|author1=Glenn E. Curtis|author2=Eric Hooglund|title=Iran: A Country Study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yPf_f7skJUYC&pg=PA63|date=18 July 2008|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-8444-1187-3|page=63}}

Assassination

Bahonar was assassinated along with Rajai and other members of the Islamic Republican Party when a bomb exploded at the party's office in Tehran on 30 August 1981.{{cite book|title=The Pearson General Knowledge Manual 2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EONdsiwgbvYC&pg=SL1-PA228|access-date=3 February 2013|date=1 January 2010|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=978-81-317-2790-4|page=1|edition = New}}{{cite web|last=Nikou|first=Semira N.|title=Timeline of Iran's Political Events|url=http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/timeline-irans-political-events|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028103238/http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/timeline-irans-political-events|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 October 2010|work=United States Institute of Peace|access-date=27 July 2013}} 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 executing the assassination.{{cite book|author=Baqer Moin|title=Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2OL9IEXaAgC&pg=PA242|year=1999|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-128-2|page=242}} Keshmiri was identified as an operative of Mujahedin that was supported by Saddam Hussein. 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. He died at the age of 47.

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."{{Sfn|Moin|2001|pp=242–3}}{{citation|title=Iran's rebels getting bolder day by day|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0915/091530.html|author=James Dorsey|date=15 September 1981|work=The Christian Science Monitor|access-date=1 June 2018}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VPhLAAAAIBAJ&pg=976%2C5687157|title=Iran: Secret agent was bomber|access-date=15 June 2017|agency=Associated Press|publisher=The Spokesman-Review|date=14 September 1981}}{{cite book|last1=Hiro|first1=Dilip|title=Iran Under the Ayatollahs (Routledge Revivals)|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=978-1-135-04381-0}} Various MEK supporters were arrested and executed in reprisal, but Kashmiri apparently slipped through the dragnet.{{cite book|author=Michael Newton|title=Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia|volume=1|date=2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-286-1|page=28|entry=Bahonar, Mohammad-Javad (1933–1981)|quote=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.}} The reaction to both bombings was intense with many arrests and executions of MEK and other leftist groups.{{Sfn|Moin|2001|p=243}}

References

Sources

{{cite book |last=Moin |first=Baqer |author-link=Baqer Moin |title=Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah |year=2001 |publisher=I. B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-84511-790-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_V-RDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}