[3][7][9] Bahonar was a reviler of the Pahlavi dynasty and had activities against Mohammad Reza Shah that led to his imprisonment in 1963,[4] 1964, and 1975.

[9][3][7][10] Bahonar along with Morteza Motahari was active speaker of Hosseiniyeh Ershad, a religious lecture hall in the Tehran.

[9] Upon release from custody, Bahonar did not engage in further activism until Khomeini became Iran's de facto ruler.

For his service in the revolution, Bahonar became the new government's minister of culture and Islamic guidance in 1981, and was responsible for censoring any media disapproved by Muslim leaders in Tehran.

[3][7] After the assassination of Mohammad Beheshti on 28 June 1981, he was appointed general secretary of the party where he was also a member of the central committee.

[3][12] Bahonar served as the minister of culture and Islamic guidance under Mohammad Ali Rajai's prime ministry from March 1981 to August 1981.

Iranian authorities announced that Massoud Keshmiri, "a close aide to the late President Muhammad Ali Rajai and secretary of the Supreme Security Council, had been responsible."

Keshmiri, an MEK member who was thought to have died in the explosion, "was accorded a martyr's funeral" and was "buried alongside Rajai and Bahonar.