Mohammad Reza Bahonar

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Mohammad Reza Bahonar (محمدرضا باهنر in Persian) is the conservative First Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Iran. He is a representative from Kerman.

In previous parliaments, he has been elected as a representative from Kerman and Tehran. He is considered a key member of the conservatice alliance, and was considered a possible candidate for the post of the speaker or the leader of the conservative faction in the parliament. He later refused to run for the post of speaker possibly because of a deal made inside the conservative alliance, so he decided to run for the post of deputy speaker. He became the First Deputy Speaker for one year on June 6, 2004 with 188 votes out of 259. The other running candidate for the post of deputy speaker was Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard, a representative from Qazvin who became the second vice speaker with 173 votes.

Bahonar, also the secretary-general of the Islamic Society of Engineers, backs commercial capitalism, and represents the technocrats of the conservative alliance. He believes in a free economy, but controlled cultural and political activities. He has mentioned that he prefers Iran to get involved in commerce, but not industry.

Mohammad Reza Bahonar is the brother of Mohammad Javad Bahonar, the second prime minister of Iran (which was assassinated).

[edit] Attacking Iranian University Students

In a speech at Shiraz University, Bahonar harshly attacked students of Amirkabir University who criticized Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in December 2006. His lecture generated anger among students of Shiraz University. He also called for punishing the students, while accusing them of being sex and Alcohol addict.^[1]

On December 11, 2006, students disrupted a speech by Ahmadinejad at the Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran. According to the Iranian Student News Agency, students set fire to photographs of Ahmadinejad and threw firecrackers. The protesters also chanted "death to the dictator". It was the first major public protest against Ahmadinejad since his election. In a statement carried on the students' Web site, they announced that they had been protesting the growing political pressure under Ahmadinejad, also accusing him of corruption, mismanagement, and discrimination. "The students showed that despite vast propaganda, the president has not been able to deceive academia," the statement added. It was also reported that some students were angry about the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust. A student activist was quoted as saying the conference was "shameful" and had "brought to our country Nazis and racists from around the world." On the one hand, Jewish Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss was invited by Ahmadinejad and gave a speech at the conference concerning Orthodox Jewish Attitude to the Holocaust. However, controversial figure and former Imperial Wizard of the KKK David Duke was also invited to attend.[2]