Zahra and Zeinab Bahrami were two sisters martyred at the school. Zahra was in second grade, and Zeinab was in sixth grade.
Their father, Ishaq Bahrami, says:
“My wife and I have three daughters. My eldest daughter is in tenth grade. Zeinab was in sixth grade, and Zahra was in second grade.
On the morning of the incident, as I did every day, I took the children to school by myself. Zeinab had reached the age of religious obligation and was fasting. That day, she got dressed earlier than Zahra and was waiting for us in the car. During the short distance from home to school, the children would memorize the Quran. That day too, Zeinab and Zahra recited for me the verses they had memorized. Zahra recited Surah al-Takathur for me that morning.
When we reached the school, I dropped the children off and went to my office.
Around 11 o’clock, my wife called and said the school had contacted us and told us to come and take the children home. I picked up the car key to go to the parking lot. In that moment, the sound of an explosion came, and I saw with my own eyes that the missile hit the school. Then came the second and third missiles, two of which struck the school.
I prayed that the children had left the school before the missile attack, but that had not happened.
I was among the first people to reach the school. I saw scenes so heartbreaking that they cannot truly be described. Many of the children were torn apart and buried under the rubble.
When I reached the school, there was only rubble. Nothing remained of the school. It was a very hard catastrophe. All the parents had come. Many citizens had also rushed there to help. It was disastrous, beyond description.
With some of the other parents, we tried to remove the rubble from the children, but there was little we could do. Then they brought many shovels and loaders and began removing the debris. The rescue workers pulled the bodies out from under the rubble one by one. I did not take my eyes off them, hoping that perhaps they would bring out Zahra and Zeinab too, and I could hold them in my arms again.
With the help of some other parents, we brought down several students who were still alive but wounded, together with their teacher.
When I reached the school and saw that condition, I knew my children had been martyred. After that, the only thing that gave me comfort was the thought that the Leader would send a message. But when, the day after the school incident, I heard the news of the Leader’s martyrdom, that was even harder for me than the martyrdom of my own children.
There was not much anyone could do there. The rescue teams were working. After the rubble was cleared, ambulances took the children’s bodies to the hospital. I went to the hospital too and searched every ward, but my children were not among the wounded. Every time an ambulance arrived, I ran to identify the bodies.
One of Zeinab’s friends had called her mother and said that she and Zeinab had come out into the schoolyard together. We thought perhaps Zeinab had managed to leave the school completely. But later we understood that when our daughter Zeinab had come into the yard, the second explosion occurred, and rubble fell on her head. Her skull had been injured. When I saw her body, there was bleeding from her skull.
In the first hours, when the bodies were brought in, I identified Zeinab’s body among the first twenty bodies of children that were in body bags. But I found my daughter Zahra’s body the next day, around 7:30 in the morning.
Harder and more painful than the condition of the school was the condition at the hospital. After I prayed the morning prayer in the hospital, I said, ‘God, help me find a sign of my daughter Zahra, so I can show it to her mother and not return to her empty-handed.’
Then I went toward the ambulance that was bringing the bodies. By then, there were no longer whole bodies, only limbs. Suddenly, someone called out, ‘Zahra Bahrami.’
I was between shock and the hope that Zahra might be alive. I ran toward the ambulance with all my strength. But I saw Zahra’s lifeless body, with her school bag and school things placed beside her. That day, Zahra had math, and her counting blocks had also been brought in the body bag beside her other belongings and her body.
Before I reached Zahra’s body, I saw more than 150 bodies, one by one, until finally I reached my daughter. Her face and body were almost intact. Some of those bodies were not bodies anymore; they were only limbs, a piece of flesh, a hand, a foot. Seeing those scenes was very hard for me.”