Fatemeh Shahdadi was a physical education teacher at Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab. Born on 11 September 1991 in the Sheikhabad neighborhood of Minab, she had studied physical education and sports science at Payam Noor University and was known for her work in promoting Handball among students. She held a grade-three coaching card and a grade-three refereeing certificate in handball, and taught sport not only as movement, but as joy, teamwork, discipline, and life. She was full of life, she didn’t support her students only in school, she even followed them out of school time, in their gym for some of them.
On the day of the attack, she was teaching during physical education class. When the first explosion struck, she did what only a true teacher, and perhaps only a motherly soul, could do. She went from the yard into the school to help children. While she was helping the second missile targeted school, she was trapped under the pillar and unable to move. At the same time, a fire broke out and she was burning in the flames, trapped under the rubble. The blast and debris took her life. But several children survived beneath the shelter of her final embrace. Half of her body was buried under the rubble; the rest was burnt by fire.
In ordinary times, people say that a teacher is a second mother. In Minab, Fatemeh Shahdadi proved it with her body. She did not leave her students. She did not run toward safety. She became safety. Her last lesson was not Handball, movement, or sport. Her last lesson was sacrifice.