Banisadr was born on 22 March 1933 in Hamadān. His father was an ayatollah and close to Ruhollah Khomeini. Banisadr studied law, theology, and sociology at University of capital. In the 1960s, he studied finance and economics at the Sorbonne. In 1972, Banisadr’s father died and he attended the funeral in Iraq, where he first met Ayatollah Khomeini.