Iranian Mother Describes Pain and Trauma After Minab School Attack

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and grieving mother Mohaddeseh Fallahat addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva via videolink on Friday.

Mohaddeseh Fallahat shared a personal account of her children’s death, stating that she had combed their hair, tied their shoes, and kissed them goodbye before they left for school. She recalled how her children said “Mum, come pick us up after school” as they walked out the door, a phrase now etched in her mind 1,000 times.

The attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls’ School in Minab, southern Iran, resulted in the deaths of over 170 people, including more than 100 schoolgirls. The victims were killed by United States Tomahawk missiles during the opening hours of the US-Israeli assault.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that the attack was not a “miscalculation” and claimed it was deliberate and intentional. He described the victims as being “slaughtered in cold blood”. Araghchi also accused the US and Israel of committing humanitarian crimes with impunity, citing earlier manifestations of lawlessness and atrocities in occupied Palestine, Lebanon, and elsewhere.

The UN special rapporteur on the right to education, Farida Shaheed, stated that the school and other buildings in the compound were struck individually by precision munition. Ongoing investigations suggest the attack may have been the result of a mistake by the US military due to outdated intelligence.

According to her office, more than 600 schools and education facilities have been destroyed or severely damaged by US-Israeli attacks so far in Iran, resulting in at least 230 child and teacher fatalities. The UN Human Rights chief, Volker Turk, stated that targeting schools constitutes a grave violation of international law, emphasizing that killing schoolchildren cannot be justified.

The UN Human Rights Council held an urgent debate on the crisis in the Middle East, with Fallahat’s testimony and Araghchi’s address highlighting the devastating impact of the conflict on civilians.

Source: Al Jazeera