Mohammad-Ali Rajai was president of Iran for less than a month. He took office on August 2nd, 1981 and was killed in a bombing along with Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Banohar and three others on August 30th. A former math teacher from a humble background—his father had been a shopkeeper in Qazvin—Rajai had served in the air force and was later imprisoned twice for opposing the shah. A year before he became president, Rajai had been the Islamic Republic’s second prime minister, replacing his some-time political ally Mehdi Bazargan, who had resigned in protest over Ayatollah Khomeini’s refusal to release US embassy staff taken hostage by his supporters.
