Elham Karimi and her daughter Hananeh Zakeri Khahan, both flew from Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab, but not in each other’s arms. Hananeh’s mother, the school deputy, was comforting the children and gathering them into a corner when she was martyred a short distance away from her own child.
Omid Zakeri Khahan husband of Elham and father of Hananeh says:
“My mother-in-law called me around 11 o’clock and said, ‘I was speaking with Elham when suddenly there was screaming and shouting. After that, no matter how many times I called, her phone was unreachable.’
I became anxious. I called my brother-in-law because his workplace was near the school. I asked him where he was. He said he was near the school. I told him Elham was not answering her phone. He said, ‘A few minutes ago I heard a very loud sound. I think they hit somewhere.’
Ten minutes later, my brother-in-law called and said, ‘We are ruined… They hit Shajareh Tayyebeh School.’
That one sentence was enough to make a father and a husband lose himself.
He continues:
“As soon as I found out, I got into the car and drove like a madman from the district office to the school in twenty minutes. A large part of the residential buildings in front of the school had collapsed. As soon as I saw the school, I said, ‘God, You gave them, and You have taken them.’ From what I was seeing, it seemed unlikely that anyone from my family had survived.”
“Until one o’clock, we sat there waiting for the bodies. My brother-in-law said maybe someone had taken the wounded before we arrived. He told me to go to the hospital.”
“When I arrived at the hospital, we realized they had hit the school again. In the second stage, they struck around the school, the pharmacy warehouse, and the children’s playground equipment. They also hit the surrounding halls.
My wife’s brother called and said Elham, my wife, had been found and that she was probably not well. When I arrived, I saw her body and held her in my arms. She had not been injured. Only her lip had a small crack. It was as if she had suffocated.”
Elham was dead far from her daughter among other children.
It was as if Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School had become a piece of heaven. Teachers loved the children of others as their own and protected them. Elham, like the other teachers, did not leave the school to protect only her own child and keep her safe. Elham stayed so that the parents of the other students could arrive and take their children home.