Mohammad-Ali Rajai

, Tehran Mohammad-Ali Rajai was born on 15 June 1933 in Qazvin, Iran. His father, a shopkeeper named Abdolsamad, died when he was four years old. Rajai grew up in Qazvin and moved to Tehran in the late 1940s. He joined the Air Force at age sixteen or seventeen. In 1959, he graduated from Tarbiat Moallem University with a degree in education, later working as a teacher of mathematics. ==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. and in 1960, joined the Freedom Movement of Iran. He was arrested at least twice by SAVAK for his opposition activities, with his longest detention lasting from May 1974 to late 1978. In one of his first acts in office, he named Mohammad-Javad Bahonar to become the next prime minister of Iran. ==Assassination==

'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. 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. He is buried in Behesht-e Zahra cemetery. ==Political positions==

Rajai's political programs were based on a form of constitutional law that included a position of privilege for Islam. He insisted that those in control of the state must be Muslim, emphasized the Velayat-e Faqih, and believed it essential that the government cooperate with institutions such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and the Islamic Revolutionary Court. ==References==