Athareh Zarei was a fourth-grade student.
She came from a religious family. She learned to read at the age of five. Before she even started school, she could read from the Quran, and she received her first Quran certificate at the age of six.
Athareh’s mother remembers:
“When religious gatherings were held, Athareh served in the mourning assembly in her own childlike way. She would hand out tissues, carry the trash bin around the gathering and collect the waste, take a tray of water and tea in her hands and serve everyone, and afterward gather the empty cups and glasses from the middle of the room.
Sometimes, when she disappeared from my sight, I would go looking for her. I would search and find her behind the mosque, playing with the other children.
Athareh was a very kind, polite, and generous girl. When we went to the religious gathering, if we stopped at a shop beforehand, she would buy snacks so she could share them with all the children. For example, she would buy packs of Lavashak, and distribute them among all the children, from the oldest to the youngest.
She became a role model for others. Whenever any of the children bought snacks, they would bring them to the mosque and share them with everyone.
We had moved to Minab two years earlier, but for religious ceremonies and gatherings we still went to that same mosque as before. As was our yearly custom in Ramadan, when mosques hold nightly programs, we went the night before Athareh’s martyrdom to the Ahl al-Bayt Mosque, the mosque of our village. That night, Athareh warmly greeted everyone. She even took the hands of the elders in the gathering and kissed them. She was so happy to see her friends. That night, she gathered all her friends and said, ‘Come, let’s tell our wishes to Imam Reza.’ She had called the shrine of Imam Reza, and each of the children, one by one, spoke to Imam Reza and shared their wishes.
I do not know what Athareh said to Imam Reza that night, that the next day she received the grace of martyrdom.
After that day, I found an unsent text message on her phone. She had written it to the shrine of Imam Reza:
‘Imam Reza, pray that I can have a bicycle.’”