Zeinab Makizadeh was a fourth-grade student.
Her mother says:
“My Zeinab was a very kind girl, very kind. Her kindness was not only for her family and the people around her; it also reached animals. Whenever I cooked food, she would say, ‘Mother, give me some food so I can give it to the animals.’ I would say, ‘I will give you the leftovers.’ But she would say, ‘No, Mother, give me from the food you are cooking now.’ The most beautiful quality I loved in Zeinab was this kindness.”
Her mother remembers the day of the attack:
“Early in the morning, around 6:10, I got her ready. I combed her hair, dressed her in ironed clothes, and walked her to the yard of our house. Then I sent her to school.
Around 11:20, I heard two loud explosions. I was inside the house, and the inner door of the house shook with a strong sound. At first, I thought someone had kicked the door. Then I realized there was war, and that it was the sound of the enemy’s attack.
I immediately went outside. At first, I thought they had hit the clinic near the school. I quickly called her father and told him to go for Zeinab. I did not know that the school itself had been hit directly.
That was how I learned that students, teachers, and even some parents who had gone to pick up their children had been martyred.
On the day of the attack, my family did not allow me to go to the scene. They told me some children were still under the rubble and would soon be brought out. They did not want my condition to collapse.
That day, my Zeinab was not found. The next day, I could not bear it anymore. I went to the school and tried to find my daughter. It lasted until noon, and then they told us to go to the cold-storage facilities to look for the bodies.
At the first mortuary, I did not find Zeinab. At the second one, when the third martyr’s cover was opened, I recognized my Zeinab from the details of her clothes.
That was the last time I saw Zeinab.”
I asked Zeinab’s grieving mother, while she was holding her younger daughter in her arms, what message she would give Zeinab if she could.
She said:
“My Zeinab, I love you so much. I am so proud of you. How dear you must have been to God, that God chose you and brought you close to Him.”
Zeinab’s father takes her half-burned clothes out of a bag and says:
“As everyone knows, this is the document of the crime of America and Israel, and that hyena Netanyahu.”
Then, referring to the supporters of the Pahlavi movement who are backed by Israel, he says:
“I do not know what freedom you are talking about? We already have freedom. Is this the price of what you want?”
With grief and sorrow, one by one, he takes out the blood-soaked school headscarf and the burned school uniform from the bag and shows them to the camera.
He says:
“Look. These are what remain of my Zeinab, the traces of her that we must see and burn with until the Day of Judgment and still endure.”
The father from Minab, despite all his grief and sorrow, gathers himself and says:
“Criminal America, Israel and its Arab allies should know: This is Iran, and Minab is the cradle of lions. The people of Minab will stand by the Revolution and the system until the last drop of blood and the last breath, and they will not allow the dream the enemies have for the dismemberment of Iran to come true.”