Martyr Rajai

Biography
Martyr Mohammad Ali Rajai, was born on 1933 in the Qazvin province, Iran. At the age of 4 he was deprived of a father’s blessing and was dependent on a compassionate mother.

In the book `Prophet’s character sketch of Martyr Rajai’, as compiled by Gholamali Rajai which was printed by the organization and published by the Culture Ministry and Islamic Guidance Publication in 2006, about the adolescence and the youth period of martyr Rajai states that: ``From the very childhood period the devotedness and slavery spirit was visible in the existence of Martyr Rajai. Mosque magnifier, mourning, night prayers, consideration of associates veil, responsibility feeling towards others, distancing from the worldly property were all the salient features of this Qazvini teenager. At the age of 4 he lost his father and was educated under the shadow of his esteemed mother and brother and had a high respect for these two and usually would not do any work that contradicted their desires.’’
Martyr Rajai was accounted as the most influential headmen of revolution and revolutionary statesman and Islamic. In the viewpoint of people he was believed as a religious chief and statesman humanity in the Islamic government. During the deputyship of the Islamic assembly parliament, prime ministership and presidentship period he had an aim to accomplish the ideological goals of Islamism in the top of his programs and due to the same reason his government was given an epithet of the ideological government.
In total, Martyr Rajai served as the president for 28 days and on the 30th August 1981 he was assassinated by the MKO or People’s Mujahedin of Iran.

Education
Martyr Rajai carried out his primary education in the Qazvin till procurement of 6th standard certificate. He migrated to Tehran in 1946 and in 1947 entered Air Force. He serviced for 5 years in the Air Force, and carried out his secondary education in night schools, later in 1955 went to a supreme training college and in 1959 he graduated in the field of mathematics.
He in 1950s besides education and employment carried out his political activities by participating in the Quran interpretation sessions and the speeches of Ayatollah Taleghani and in the mosque followed up the guidance and cooperation of clergy warrior and the permanence of Islamic coalition parties.

Cultural activities Teaching
Mohammad Ali Rajai after the procurement of his graduation degree was employed as the mathematics teacher in the Ministry of Culture and sequentially taught in the Khvansar, Qazvin and Tehran provinces. Martyr Rajai during his teaching period, was always a sympathetic, hard working and competent teacher and while teaching, endeavored to learn Islamic sciences and performed the political activities.
Cooperation with the welfare foundation and Islamic cooperative
Martyr Rajai though paced with political activities, but for a moment did not neglect the cultural services; him while teaching in welfare and accomplishment schools, was cooperating with the welfare foundation and Islamic cooperative along with Ayatollah Beheshti and Martyr Bahonar and Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The warfare epoch
In the book `Prophet’s character sketch of Martyr Rajai’ from the warfare period of his it is remembered as follows: ``Martyr Rajai was a real warrior and besides at home was carrying out a series of secret activities against the regime. He was a daring personality and although for some time acted as the soldier of the system was participating in the Islam devotees meetings of the company. He was very confidant and in his terms with others observed this principle, especially in the conduct of political activities. Due to the political activities that he had most of the times at home, he used to pick up the phone and opened the door so that via this way his spouse was even uniformed about some of his activities.
In the office in some administrations he had a pivotal role, but rarely his associates were aware of this matter. He used to seriously struggle in the advertisement and forwarding Imam’s message and with courage delivered the declarations to the people.
He used to participate in the guidance sessions in the place where the martyrdom of Imam Hussein is mourned and that place was addressed as a trench by Muslim boys. In the repeated times that he was arrested by the Savak he used to destroy all his information and despite much tortures he would not provide any information to the Savak.
Besides Martyr Rajai had carried out many activities in the welfare school and since many of the responsible individuals of the welfare school were imprisoned he was always suspecting Savak. Martyr Rajai had a fundamental role in the establishment of Imam Khomeini (Rah) in the welfare school, but due to security issues, many of his relatives were unaware of this matter.
Martyr Rajai without pride was carrying out any kind of job and despite the big responsibilities that he had the bigness and smallness of the work never mattered to him. He never sacrificed truth for the expediency and with relying on God used to provide hope to others.
The courage and bravery was also very obvious in the decision makings and behavior of this martyr. During the arrest of Savak though he had seen many traumas from them, but used to behave very graciously and he accounted ill-behaving with them as being equivalent to the regime.’’

Membership in the freedom and arrest movement
In 1960, Martyr Rajai attained membership of the freedom movement. In the April of 1962 he was arrested for the first time and imprisoned for 50 days. Martyr Rajai after the independence of Islamic Republic due to the disagreement with the leaders of the freedom movement, along with Mohammad Mehdi Jafari, Ezatollah Sahabi and several others got separated from the freedom movement.
He after the release from prison with the assistance of Martyr Mohammad Javad Bahonar carried out a reorganization of the coalition party and assisted the training of those individuals who could manage an armed battle and voluntarily expedited to the Palestine front. In this regard and for the completion of the aforesaid program in 1970 he personally travelled abroad, initially to France and Turkey and from there set out for Syria.

The prison epoch
In the fifth chapter of the book `Prophet’s character sketch of Martyr Rajai’ is it stated that : `` The first stage of the prison epoch of Martyr Rajai was in the Qazvin prison that after 7 months of his marriage due to the poem stanza that was against the regime and was found from his pocket he was arrested. During this period he recommended that no one should go to meet him and not to write any letter for him so that the sensitiveness of Savak increases. He even in the prison was fully utilizing his time and was engaged in correcting the students’ papers and or with regular programming used to completely occupy his time.’’

Resistance to the prison
Martyr Rajai with the utmost courage and bravery resisted the confined prisons of the Pahlavi regime, and as well as a stable mountain resisted the various types and partitions of tortures. Due to these resistances he was sent to Palace prison and later to Evin prison. In prison, he became aware of the real nature of the MKO and searched their exoneration. The total duration of his imprisonment was for 4 years.
In the book `Prophet’s character sketch of Martyr Rajai’ about his imprisonment and tortures of Savak it is stated that: ``Second stage of imprisonment of Martyr Rajai was in Tehran, which lasted for 4 years and the real reason of it was the books written by him that were exposed. The pressure of Savak was due to this reason that they were thinking that he was the factor in the distribution of `People’s Mujahedin of Iran Organization’ books. Despite that in prison for a period of one year regularly, he was having a ration of beating, but they could never attain his confession. He would never during his torturing expose those individuals that had cooperated with him and always during torturing would thank God. Savak also due to the reason that failed to obtain any information from him would increase the measure of his tortures.
During the period that he was in the Evin prison the closeness besides his fellow prisoners who accepted Marxist and Mujahedin was experiencing the height of exile. He in the prison was an example of moral and had a special spirituality. He would carry out all his works on time and even in the prison would perform the crowd prayers and night prayers. ‘’

Freedom from prison and sincere efforts for the victory of revolution
Martyr Rajai in 1977, with the peak of Islamic revolution along with the other political prisoners was released and immediately entered the political and cultural campaigns and along with the number of his colleagues initiated an extensive effort in the mobilization and organization of the secret campaigns of the Muslim teachers and was successful to create the Islamic association of teachers. Opening of the schools, fighting with leftists, western and anti-revolution forces, the identification, introduction and absorption of the forces committed to the revolution and surrendering the responsibilities to the individuals who were committed and were educated and many more were an example of the activities of Rajai and teachers Islamic association. In the extensive marching in 1977 he sincerely and with all his efforts tried to possess a very effective role in their advertising activities.

The minister of education and training
With the victory of the Islamic revolution of Iran and the establishment of an interim government, Gholamhossein Shekouhi on the 21st February 1977 was appointed as the minister of education and training and Martyr Rajai as one of his counselors, had a very influential and active role in the reorganization of the institute and played a pivotal role in the administrations needed by the Ministry of Education and Training in its new form. On the 8th September 1978, Dr. Gholamhossein Shekouhi who was hospitalized two weeks before due to his illness resigned from the Ministry of Education and Training and went out of the Mehdi Bazargan cabinet in the interim government. Following this resignation, Mohammad Javad Bahonar as a parliamentary deputy of the Ministry of Education and Training of that epoch, during an interview stated that till the determination of a new minister one of the committee members of the Ministry of Education and Training should, took the responsibility of the bail and the supervision of that ministry and suggested the name of Mohammad Ali Rajai for this responsibility and introduced him by uttering the following words: ``He is not a clergyman, he is a mathematics teacher, he has been imprisoned and has gone through tortures and in the jail, his resistance was severe and possesses the interesting projects of the Ministry of Education and Training’’.

From supervision to ministry
Following the proposal of Martyr Bahonar, Martyr Rajai from 9th September 1978 to 29th September 1978 as an interim supervisor of the Ministry of Education and Training perpetuated his activities till the period when Engineer Bazargan on the 29th September officially announced his new cabinet, Martyr Rajai was also appointed as the warrantor of the Ministry of Education and Training ministry and after the abdication of Bazargan and the work termination of the interim government with the verdict of the revolution council on the 16th November 1978 was appointed with the secretary front at the top of education and training. His prime action in the top of the Ministry of Education and Training was to convert the nationalized schools into governmental schools and providing a monotonous form for the education and training.

The initiation of Martyr Rajai’s work as the Minister of Education and Training
Martyr Rajai in his first interview on 16th September 1978 after his appointment towards the Ministry of Education and Training announced: `` From this date onwards the entire privileges of the educational units which have been issued via the Ministry of Education and Training is under the Islamic republic government and the management of the educational institutions will be via a desaparecidos party consisting of the representatives of the House and the School Association, the representatives that hold a privilege and the representatives of the Ministry of Education and Training and the implementation of the established law of this plan will be prepared and assigned within a month and will be experimentally implemented for a period of one year.

The programs and plans of Martyr Rajai
Martyr Rajai on the 6th October 1978 also during a press interview announced the programs and plans of the Ministry of Education and Training. He accounted the fair distribution of education and training facilities, elimination of the administrative and financial discrimination between the employees, reformation of the teacher training centers, reversing a teacher to his or her real and divine position, efforts to create an educational system in accordance to the monotheistic society, the dissemination of the Islamic revolution moral at the students and coaches level, creation of a proper relationship between the guardians and the coaches and humanizing the education and training affair, strengthening the cooperation associations of home and school and diminution of the number of students in the classes as the most important education and training programs during the process of its revolutionizing in the future.

The most important measures of Martyr Rajai
The most important measures of Martyr Rajai during the 9 months of his official residency in the education and training can be addressed as the implementation of uniformity in all the schools and elimination of discrimination from it, altering the educational system, changing the content of textbooks, variation in the student-teacher relationship and extension of the facilities and equipments of education for the entire classes of the society, training and cleansing the human forces from the unethical elements of the Islam and revolution, training of a teacher for the education of the revolutionary generation, creation of training affair, special attention to the teacher training centres, employing a hundred thousand new teachers, and considering the love and interest towards teaching occupation instead of using the fellowship of students in the teachers election.

The record of Martyr Rajai in the Ministry of Education and Training
Martyr Rajai during the period of his activities in the education and training, organized a specific conduction of the education and training that it can be named as the religiously oriented and religion credence education and training. The system of education and training as per the viewpoint of Martyr Rajai is a cultural, political and religious approach of the education and training in an outward manner. Besides the anti-Semitism, denial of western culture, and simultaneous consideration of the science and religion, justification, seeking martyrdom and self-formation were the salient features of this conduction which later became the basis of education and training system.

Viewpoint of the supreme leader in the performance of Martyr Rajai
The supreme leader about the performance of Martyr Rajai during the education and training stated that: ``Prior to the period of becoming a minister, he was controlling the education and training, in reality, it relates to the initiation period of revolution and the formation of an interim government……he was the one besides Martyr Bahonar and even some others who were present including Martyr Seyed Kazem Mousavi but the most active and most energetic and most efficient of them all on the stage and the most powerful administrator was Martyr Rajai. The education and training with the assistance of Martyr Rajai, fell on the wheels of a new house of ministry, the person who had changed the education and training from its earlier form and turned into a new revolutionary form, was Martyr Rajai.’’

Viewpoint of Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani with regards to the actions of Martyr Rajai
Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani in a general outlook assessed the set of activities and the results of the Martyr Rajai actions in the education and training as follows: `` His presence in the education and training after the revolution was a fruitful and constructive presence. His resistance against the deviation lines which had targeted and aimed to attack the Islamic republic of Iran education and training was an example of his resistance of the everlasting stability of the Islamic commandments. He in this route was ungenerously attacked which in turn took his personality and prestige under the question; but from the viewpoint that he was only allured to the God and was only identifying his consent, without any fear and phobia of the enemy, obstinately continued his way and announced and simultaneously implemented the Islamic teachings in the Iranian schools.’’
Representative of the Islamic council assembly
Prime Minster of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Measures and goals of the government of Martyr Rajai
Education and training in the government of Martyr Rajai
The elected president of the people after Banisadr

Martyrdom
Martyr Rajai in a short period of his presidential term (28 days) continued the revolutionary and ideological route and the demarche which he had adopted during his prime ministership and in contrary to the previous period, the prime minister and the president were together and had common attitude and opinion.
The sworn enemies of Islamic revolution that did not have the tolerance of the presence of this hope resource for the needy and did not have an invaluable and sympathetic element on the 30th August 1981 assassinated him along with his old friend Martyr Bahonar in a blast in the prime minister’s office.

The explosion occurrence and the martyrdom of Martyr Rajai
In the evening of 30th August 1981, a huge volume of explosion aroused from the building of the Prime Minister. The employees ran towards the site of the explosion. A lot of the population arrived there. All were worried about Rajai and Bahonar. Rajai few days before, with the command of the holy Imam resided his family in one of the presidential residential units so that he will not be forced to continuously go to his house. Kamal, the thirteen year old son of Martyr Rajai witnessed the fire flames from far. He with a disturbed mood phoned his mother and shared the story with her so that the wife of martyr Rajai arrives to the site. The bloody and burnt bodies of Rajai and Bahonar were transferred to the hospital. The severity of the explosion was to such an extent that one could identify the persons who were killed. The dead bodies were transferred to the revolution hospital and the body of Martyr Rajai was kept in the mortuary. No one knew that this burnt body was Martyr Rajai. It came to the mind of one of his associates that from the teeth, it can be realized that whether the burnt body is the body of Martyr Rajai or not? But the burns were so high that the mouth of Rajai could not be opened with an ease. A few moments later one of the doctors arrived and after washing his lips with oxygenated water, opened his mouth and the teeth were observed, but still no one could identify him. The spouse of Martyr Rajai came to the hospital and identified the burnt body of Martyr Rajai in the mortuary. With the hearing of the martyrdom news of Martyr Rajai and Bahonar, the people poured into the streets and Iran mourned the martyrdom of its president and prime minister. With the sunrise on the 31st August people gathered opposite the Islamic council assembly and with the high slogans that ``Rajai, Rajai your route will be continued’’ escorted his as well as Martyr Bahonar bodies to the Behesht-e-Zhara or Zahra’s Heaven.

The last will
20 days prior to his martyrdom, before leaving home to participate in an important meeting, Rajai’s spouse told him: ``I propose that you write a new will. The last will was written many years back.’’ Rajai recalled that on 1972 before his imprisonment, he had written a will and on that day, 8 years were passing from his writing that will. On a piece of paper of the exercise notebook with a neat, readable, easy and simple handwriting he wrote a will and gave it to his spouse:

``In the Name of the Compassionate and Merciful God,
This little slave of the Almighty God with confession to a world of mistake, inattention to the delicacy of the responsibility from the mercy God, asks for the forgiveness and requests an absolution from all the committed sisters and brothers. The real will of mine is the collection of my life. The entire things that I had said and recommendations that I availed in relation to the Islam and the Imam I emphasize it with the revolution. I will not give trouble to anyone but I assume that if the entire life conduction of mine is related into a book it will be useful for the students.
Whatever I have from the world property belongs to my wife and children. The quality of performance, according to the divine law I will keep on their responsibility. My brother Mohammad Hussein Rajai should be an executor and my wife should be an observer and guardian. I accept the God for oneness, the Islam for honesty, Mohammad (peace be upon him) as a prophecy and Ali and the eleven children of thy behests as the Imamate and after the death as the resurrection and God for accounting the justice and I hope for a forgiveness from his sea of mercy.
I wrote this brief for the evasion of the imposition and determination of the divine law for the survivors and I wrote, according to the spiritual duty, otherwise the will of this humble slave with the entire changes in the life does not accommodate in this brief, and Mecca and Haj Beitollah pilgrimage was necessitated for me but the possibility of going was unattained. Now, since I am swiftly moving towards God’s eternity, this ordain should be considered as a responsibility by one of the good slaves of God. One third of the property with the identification of survivors should be spent for a `charitable deed’ and in case they do not reach a peremptory result, then it should be given to the foundation of the martyr (Mohammad Ali Rajai).’’

The museum of martyr Rajai
The Tehran Municipality has converted the old home of Martyr Rajai into a museum. The opening ceremony of this museum was held on the 2nd May 2008 which coincided with the teacher’s day and was conducted with the presence of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the mayor of Tehran and Mrs. `Ateqe Sadiqui’ the wife of Martyr Rajai.
In this museum a number of the personal effects of the Martyr Rajai such as the teeth of Martyr as the only sign of his identification after the explosion of the republic presidential office, trip suitcase, the study room along with the table and the stationary, simple décor and the intimate home along with the dresses, home equipments and many more were exhibited. This museum is located on the Islam Mujahedin road, Martyr Ajanlu road, Mirzaei Stree

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