{{Short description|President of Iran in 1981}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} {{primary sources|date=June 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Mohammad-Ali Rajai | native_name = {{No bold|محمدعلی رجایی}} | native_name_lang = fa | image = File:Portrait of Mohammad-Ali Rajai Edit (cropped).jpg | image_size = | caption = Rajai {{circa}} 1981 | birth_date = {{birth date|1933|6|15|df=y}} | birth_place = Qazvin, Imperial State of Persia | death_date = {{death date and age|1981|08|30|1933|6|15|df=y}} | death_place = Tehran, Iran | resting_place = Behesht-e Zahra | order = 2nd | office = President of Iran | term_start = 2 August 1981 | term_end = 30 August 1981 | 1blankname = {{nowrap|Supreme Leader}} | 1namedata = Ruhollah Khomeini | 2blankname = Prime Minister | 2namedata = ''Himself''<br/>Mohammad-Javad Bahonar | predecessor = Abolhassan Banisadr (June 1981) | successor = Ali Khamenei (October 1981) | order2 = 42nd | office2 = Prime Minister of Iran | term_start2 = 12 August 1980 | term_end2 = 4 August 1981 | 1blankname2 = Supreme Leader | 1namedata2 = Ruhollah Khomeini | 2blankname2 = President | 2namedata2 = Abolhassan Banisadr<br>''Himself'' | predecessor2 = Mehdi Bazargan (1979) | successor2 = Mohammad Javad Bahonar | office3 = Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran<br />{{small|Acting}} | term_start3 = 11 March 1981 | term_end3 = 15 August 1981 | prime_minister3 = ''Himself'' | president3 = Abolhassan Banisadr | predecessor3 = Karim Khodapanahi {{small|(Acting)}} | successor3 = Mir-Hossein Mousavi | office4 = Minister of Education of Iran | term_start4 = November 1979 | term_end4 = 28 May 1980 | prime_minister4 = Mehdi Bazargan | predecessor4 = Gholam-Hossein Shokouhi | successor4 = Mohammad Javad Bahonar | office5 = Member of the Parliament of Iran | term_start5 = 28 May 1980 | term_end5 = 1 August 1981 | constituency5 = Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr | majority5 = 1,209,012 (56.6%) | office6 = Head of Mostazafan Foundation | appointer6 = Ruhollah Khomeini | term_start6 = 17 September 1980 | term_end6 = 30 August 1981 | predecessor6 = Alinaghi Khamoushi | successor6 = Mir-Hossein Mousavi | party = Islamic Republican Party<br />Islamic Association of Teachers of Iran | other_party = Freedom Movement (until 1979)<br />People's Mujahedin (until 1975) | education = Tarbiat Moallem University | spouse = {{marriage|Ateghe Sediqi|1958}} | children = 3 | signature = Mohammad-Ali Rajai signature.svg }} '''Mohammad-Ali Rajai''' ({{langx|fa|محمدعلی رجایی}}; 15 June 1933 – 30 August 1981) was an Iranian politician who served as the second president of Iran from 2 August 1981 until his assassination four weeks later. Before his presidency, Rajai had served as prime minister under Abolhassan Banisadr, while concurrently occupying the position of foreign affairs minister from 11 March 1981 to 15 August 1981. He died in a bombing on 30 August 1981 along with then-prime minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar.
==Early life and education== [[File:Mohammad Ali Rajai Museum.jpg|thumb|left|Rajai's house in Baharestan, Tehran]] Mohammad-Ali Rajai was born on 15 June 1933 in Qazvin, Iran.<ref name=Chehabi1990>{{cite book|author=Houchang E. Chehabi|title=Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJEIQbUnGyYC&pg=PA228|access-date=27 August 2013|year=1990|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-198-5|page=87}}</ref> His father, a shopkeeper named Abdolsamad, died when he was four years old.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Brown |first=Roland Elliott |date=20 April 2017 |title=Rajai: The Clerics' Loyalist (1981) |url=https://iranwire.com/en/features/4550 |website=IranWire}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Documentary Biography of President Mohammad Ali Rajai|url=http://iricenter.org/uncategorized/documentary-biography-of-president-mohammad-ali-rajai/|date=6 November 2016|website=Islamic Revolution International Center|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161102145119/http://iricenter.org/uncategorized/documentary-biography-of-president-mohammad-ali-rajai/|archive-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> Rajai grew up in Qazvin and moved to Tehran in the late 1940s. He joined the Air Force at age sixteen or seventeen.<ref name="enbr" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Obituaries {{!}} Mohammad Ali Rajai, Iran's President|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/01/obituaries/mohammad-ali-rajai-iran-s-president.html|last=Kihss|first=Peter|date=1 September 1981|website=New York Times|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524075342/https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/01/obituaries/mohammad-ali-rajai-iran-s-president.html|archive-date=24 May 2015}}</ref> In 1959, he graduated from Tarbiat Moallem University with a degree in education, later working as a teacher of mathematics.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" />
==Political career== After moving to Tehran, Rajai became involved in the anti-Shah movement and associated with Mahmoud Taleghani and the Fadayeen-e Islam group.<ref name=":2" /> A one-time member of the largely anti-clerical People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), Rajai soon came out against its left-leaning ideals<ref name="ostovar">{{cite web|title=Guardians of the Islamic Revolution Ideology, Politics, and the Development of Military Power in Iran (1979–2009)|url=http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/64683/afshon_1.pdf;jsessionid=DF7BFA33BF18FF73E9117CB0504F14E1?sequence=1|last=Ostovar|first=Afshon P.|year=2009|publisher=University of Michigan|format=PhD Thesis|access-date=26 July 2013}}</ref> and in 1960, joined the Freedom Movement of Iran.<ref name="Chehabi1990" /><ref name="enbr">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Mohammad Ali Raja'i|url=http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/766025/Mohammad-Ali-Rajai|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=27 August 2013}}</ref> He was arrested at least twice by SAVAK for his opposition activities, with his longest detention lasting from May 1974 to late 1978.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="enbr" /><ref name=":0" /> Later in a 1980 speech to the United Nations Security Council, Rajai displayed his beaten right foot to the audience, attributing its condition to being tortured by the Shah's interrogators in prison.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />
[[File:President Rajaei Inauguration at Majlis.jpg|left|thumb|Rajai's presidential inauguration at the Majles]]
Following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Rajai left the Freedom Movement and was appointed the minister of education in an Interim Government led by Mehdi Bazargan.<ref name="Chehabi1990" /> Using his newfound power, Rajai sought the rapid Islamization of Iranian schools by banning the teaching of English, removing courses thought to be "non-Islamic", closing universities to prevent potential student dissent, and firing teachers with whom he disagreed.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />
Although the Interim Government of Iran resigned on 6 November 1979 as a result of the Iran hostage crisis, Rajai remained in his post until 12 August 1980, when he was appointed prime minister by newly-elected president Abolhassan Banisadr, who was under pressure from the dominant Islamic Republican Party.<ref name=":1" /> Rajai set up his cabinet by selecting Karim Khodapanahi as foreign affairs minister, Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani as interior minister, and Javad Fakoori as defense minister. Just a month into Rajai's premiership on 22 September 1980, the Iran–Iraq War began.
===Presidency=== Banisadr was impeached on 21 June 1981 by the Iranian Parliament, allegedly because of his moves against the clerics in power. Ruhollah Khomeini, acting as Supreme Leader, held a Provisional Presidential Council of six people headed by Mohammad Beheshti and later Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili. Rajai, a member of the Council, nominated himself for the presidential election in 1981, running as a member of the Islamic Republican Party. By winning 91% of the votes, Rajai officially became the president after taking the Oath of Office on 2 August 1981.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QOIhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GmEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7028,1712264&dq=rajai&hl=en "Rajai Sworn In; Bani-Sadr Predicts Revolt"], ''Pittsburgh Press'', 2 August 1981, p. A-8</ref> In one of his first acts in office, he named Mohammad-Javad Bahonar to become the next prime minister of Iran.
==Assassination== {{main|1981 Iranian Prime Minister's office bombing}} [[File:Etelaat-9-shahrivar-60(2).jpg|thumb|left|News of Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar's assassination from Ettela'at|border]] On 30 August 1981, Rajai held a meeting of Iran's Supreme Defence Council along with Bahonar. Witnesses later stated that a trusted aide brought a briefcase into the conference room, set it between the two leaders, and then left. A short period later, another person opened the case, triggering a hidden bomb that set the room ablaze, leading to the deaths of Rajai, Bahonar, and six other officials.<ref>Facts on File Yearbook 1981</ref> The attack occurred two months after the Haft-e Tir bombing. Iranian officials identified MEK operative Massoud Keshmiri as the culprit, though others allege the bombing was by political rivals within Rajai's political party.<ref name="Newton">{{cite book |last1=Newton |first1=Michael |title=Famous Assassinations in World History |date=17 April 2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781610692861 |page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F4-dAwAAQBAJ&q=1981+Iranian+Prime+Minister%27s+office+bombing+MEK&pg=PA27 |access-date=4 November 2020 |archive-date=4 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104125911/https://books.google.com/books?id=F4-dAwAAQBAJ&q=1981+Iranian+Prime+Minister%27s+office+bombing+MEK&pg=PA27 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Kenneth |last=Katzman |chapter=Iran: The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran |title = Iran: Outlaw, Outcast, Or Normal Country? |publisher = Nova Science Publishers |year=2001 |editor-first = Albert V. |editor-last = Benliot |isbn = 978-1-56072-954-9|page=101}}</ref> He is buried in Behesht-e Zahra cemetery.
==Political positions== Rajai based his governance on political Islam. He insisted that government members be Muslim, adhere to the concept of ''Velayat-e Faqih,'' and cooperate with institutions such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and the Islamic Revolutionary Court.<ref>{{cite news|title=How created a consistent government|author=Ali Ahmadi|year=1384|pages=14–18|magazine=Gozaresh}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Portal|Iran|Biography|Politics}} *{{Commons-inline}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before = Mehdi Bazargan| title = Prime Minister of Iran|years=1980–1981| after = Mohammad Javad Bahonar}}{{succession box | before = Karim Khodapanahi (Acting)| title = Minister of Foreign Affairs (Acting)|years=1981| after = Mir-Hossein Mousavi}} {{succession box | before = Abulhassan Banisadr| title = President of Iran|years=1981| after = Ali Khamenei}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=Hassan Habibi}} {{s-ttl|title=Islamic Republican Party nominee for President of Iran|years=July 1981}} {{s-aft|after=Ali Khamenei}} {{s-end}} {{Navboxes |title = Mohammad Ali Rajai |titlestyle = style="background:#eee; |list = {{Presidents of Iran}} {{IranPMs}} {{Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Iran}} {{Heads of Mostazafan Foundation}} {{Iran Education Ministers}} }} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajai, Mohammad Ali}} Category:1933 births Category:1981 deaths Category:People from Qazvin Category:Freedom Movement of Iran MPs Category:People of the Iranian Revolution Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of Iran Category:Members of the 1st Islamic Consultative Assembly Category:Presidents of Iran Category:Prime ministers of Iran Category:Islamic Republican Party politicians Category:Candidates in the July 1981 Iranian presidential election Category:Assassinated Iranian politicians Category:Burials at Behesht-e Zahra Category:Iranian revolutionaries Category:Deaths by explosive device Category:Iranian prisoners of war Category:Iranian torture victims Category:Islamic Association of Teachers of Iran politicians Category:People assassinated by the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran Category:Early People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran members Category:Simple living advocates Category:Asian politicians assassinated in the 1980s Category:Assassinated presidents in Asia Category:National presidents assassinated in the 20th century Category:20th-century presidents in Asia Category:Politicians assassinated in 1981