Mohammad-Javad Bahonar was born in 1933 in one of the old neighbourhoods of Kerman called Mahalehshahr into a poor family. He was the second child of the family and had seven brothers and sisters. His father was a simple tradesman and had a small shop. He went to a traditional school at the age of five. A pious lady taught him how to recite the Holy Qur’an. This lady had an educated son who taught Mohammad-Javad reading and writing and other common lessons of that time. At the age of ten, he entered the Masoumieh School. He went to Kerman and began to learn religious sciences and at the same time pursued other fields of education as well.
In the fall of 1953, he went to Qom and settled in Feyzieh School. He managed to cover the cost of living with a small amount of money he was receiving from Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad-Hoseyn Boroujerdi. After completing the first level of seminary studies, he began studying at the most advanced levels in 1954. Therefore, he studied jurisprudence, the principle of jurisprudence, philosophy and interpretation of the Holy Qur’an under Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad-Hoseyn Boroujerdi, Imam Khomeini (ra) and Allamah Mohammad-Hoseyn Tabatabai and received his diploma in the same year. He pursued university studies in theology and received a Ph.D. Then he obtained a master’s degree in educational affairs at the University of Tehran’s Faculty of Literature. In 1959, Bahonar together with some of his friends, including Sayyed Mohammad-Hoseyni Beheshti, Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi-Kani, published the “Maktab-e Eslam” magazine and then the “Faslnameh Maktab-e Tashayyo’” in which seminary students and the public become interested.
He was arrested for the first time in 1960 by the police after giving a speech in Abadan. In this speech, Bahonar condemned the Iranian government’s move to recognize Israel.
The Islamic Seminary of Qom decided to send him to Japan to propagate Islam in 1964, but due to problems the government created and the increase of the people’s struggles at that time, he did not go.
In 1963, he went to Hamadan and after delivering several speeches was arrested on the 7th day of Muharram (May 31, 1963). However, due to public protests to his arrest Bahonar was released and continued his activities until June 5, 1963. Then escaping from the security forces with the help of his friends he managed to secretly return to Tehran, but a few months later, on March 10, 1964, following delivering speeches for three nights at Tehran’s Bazar Jame Mosque on the occasion of the anniversary of the attack of the regime’s forces on Feyzieh School, he was arrested and transferred to Qezal Qala prison. Consequently, he was sentenced to four months in prison.
In the same years, with the guidance and assistance of Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad-Hoseyni Beheshti, he entered the arena of education and started working in the department responsible for planning the development of school textbooks. Therefore, by engaging in the process of compiling various textbooks for different educational levels from elementary to university, Bahonar contributed greatly to the dissemination of Islamic teachings among the youth.
Although this movement was apparently so limited, it left a deep impact in such a way that when the cultural officials of the regime found out about the contents of these books in 1976, they decided to censor some of them. One of the other notable activities of Dr. Mohammad-Javad Bahonar was the establishment of “Daftar-e Nashr-e Farhang-e Eslami” which published tens of thousands of books every year. Simultaneously with these cultural efforts, he continued his political activities through cooperation with Islamic Coalition Party. After the assassination of Hasan-Ali Mansour on December 22, 1964, by the members of the Islamic Coalition Party and the arrest of its leaders, Bahonar along with some of his friends decided to establish “Refah va Ta’avon-e Eslami” organization in an attempt to reinforce the cohesion of the fighting forces and help the poor and needy people.
In 1966, Bahonar got married and the result of this marriage was two girls and two boys.
He used to attend various centers and gatherings, including the Islamic Association of Engineers, Association of Physicians, Hedayat Mosque, al-Jawad Mosque, and Hoseyniyeh Ershad and gave speeches until 1972 when he was banned from delivering speeches in public meetings and circles.
In 1974, SAVAK was closely monitoring his activities which resulted in his arrest and a few days of imprisonment in the prison of the Anti-Sabotage Joint Committee. He was arrested and sent to prison three more times until the victory of the Islamic Revolution. Mohammad-Javad Bahonar and some other clerics, including Ayatollah Mortaza Motahhari, Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad-Hoseyni Beheshti, Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi-Kani and Hujjat al-Islam Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani established the Combatant Clergy Association of Tehran in 1979 with the aim of organizing the popular uprising against the Pahlavi regime. In the meantime, Bahonar was appointed by Imam Khomeini (ra) as the director of the committee responsible for organizing the strikes. Moreover, on the eve of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (ra) appointed him as a member of the Revolutionary Council.
After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, with another decree from Imam Khomeini (ra), he was tasked with managing the process of opening the country’s schools, and in February 1979, along with Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad-Hoseyni Beheshti, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Hujjat al-Islam Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Ayatollah Sayyed Abdolkarim Mousavi-Ardabili founded the Islamic Republican Party. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts for Constitution and the Islamic Consultative Assembly Council representing the Kerman and Tehran constituencies respectively. Mohammad-Javad Bahonar became the Minister of Education on November 26, 1980, when Mohammad Ali Rajaei was the president. One of his actions during this short period was the formation of a department specifically for dealing with moral education and upbringing.
After the bombing incident in the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party in Tehran and the martyrdom of Dr. Beheshti and his associates, Bahonar was elected as the general secretary of the Party. He became the prime minister on July 6, 1981, but his tenure was very short and lasted only 24 days. On August 30, 1981, the meeting of the Supreme National Security Council was held with the presence of President Mohammad Ali Rajaei, Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, Yousef Kolahdouz, Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Colonel Houshang Vahid-Dastjerdi, the Police Chief, and many other military and law enforcement officials. The secretary of this meeting was a person named Kashmiri, one of the members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization. He put a briefcase which had the bomb near the seats of Rajaei and Bahonar and left the meeting with an excuse. Around 3:00 p.m. a huge explosion destroyed the meeting room and set it on fire, as a result of which the President and the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran were martyred. Colonel Vahid-Dastjerdi was also seriously injured and after several days of treatment at Tehran Heart Hospital was martyred on September 5, 1981, due to the severity of the injuries. The bodies of martyrs Mohammad-Ali Rajaei and Mohammad-Javad Bahonar were buried next to the tomb of Shahid Beheshti and his associates in Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery in Tehran.
Reference: The Encyclopedia of the Islamic Revolution
Archive of The History of the Islamic Revolution
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