Hawking the Dreams

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project © Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project © Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project View all images ↓
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On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched coordinated military strikes against Iran. Just two hours later, three Tomahawk missiles struck Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, killing 156 people, including 120 children.

Operation Epic Fury is the name given by the United States and Israel to their coordinated military assault on Iran. The operation began on February 28, 2026, in the midst of diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Iran. It opened with the bombing of the office of Ali Khamenei, followed by joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on cities across Iran.

Yet despite President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s efforts to portray the operation as legitimate, this assault was neither “epic” nor carried out for the benefit of the Iranian people.

Two hours after the war began, three Tomahawk missiles struck Shajareh- Tayyebeh Elementary School in the southern Iranian city of Minab, at intervals of several minutes.

According to The Guardian, although the school was adjacent to a cluster of military buildings, including a medical clinic and pharmacy, there was no indication that the school is in any sense a military-use building. Moreover, the colorful murals on its walls are visible in some satellite imagery. Nor were its classes exclusively reserved for children of military families. The school also enrolled many children from the local community, particularly those who could not afford private school fees.

The bombing killed 156 people, including 120 students between the ages of six and thirteen—47 girls and 73 boys—as well as 26 teachers, seven family members of students, a school bus driver, a clinic technician, and a six-month-old fetus.

The scale of the devastation was so immense. Search and recovery operations continued for days as rescuers searched through the rubble for the victims. For many families, almost nothing remained of their loved ones—sometimes only a fragment of a hand or a piece of scalp. Some victims could be identified only through DNA testing.

Months earlier, in June 2025, many civilians had also been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Iran. Yet for many Iranians, the bombing of the Minab school remains the most devastating and heartbreaking event of the two wars, lasting 12 and 39 days respectively. The bombing has since become both a national trauma, as well as a symbol for those opposing war around the world.

Minab has not yet returned to ordinary life.

Months after the attack, the city remains in mourning. Minab is a small city where people know one another, or are connected through family ties. The loss therefore extends far beyond the immediate families of the victims. Grief has become a shared experience, one that touches the entire community as though the city itself had lost members of its own family.

For the parents who remain, their children now survive in memories and in the objects they left behind. A school uniform, a personal belonging, a photograph, or an everyday object can suddenly become a reminder of a child’s personality, dreams, and hopes. Those dreams ended in an instant, buried beneath the rubble when the missiles struck.

Every day, families continue to visit their children’s graves in the cemetery. They mourn together, share stories and memories of the children they lost, and try to find comfort in one another.

 The war is over, and people across Iran are attempting to rebuild their lives and repair the damage left behind. But in Minab, time seems to have stopped.

For the people of the city, and for the families of those who were killed, it is still 11:20 a.m. on February 28, 2026.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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A view of Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary and Preschool in Minab, southern Iran. The school served girls and boys aged six to twelve. On 28 February 2026, during the first hours of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, the school was struck by US missiles.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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The interior of a classroom at Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab, destroyed in the missile strikes. The US missile strikes on Shajareh Tayyebeh School were among the deadliest attacks on civilians attributed to US military action. The school was struck in the first hours of the US-Israeli military attacks against Iran, without any prior warning or evacuation alert. Many children were killed.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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Some of the schoolbags belonging to students killed in the US missile strikes on Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab. After the rubble was cleared, the bags were collected and taken to the local Department of Education. Three powerful explosions, occurring in quick succession, destroyed the school.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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A photo of Khadijeh Ahmadizadeh, the mother of Mohammad Taha Jafari, at the funeral of her son (10) a student killed in U.S. airstrikes on a school. According to his mother, he was a very brave boy who was not afraid of the dark. He dreamed of becoming popular on YouTube. Neither Mohammad Taha’s body nor any identifiable remains were initially found.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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In the days following the attack, the only item recovered was his schoolbag. A month later, DNA testing identified fragments of his skin among the unidentified human remains recovered during the clearance of the rubble and kept in cold storage. He was finally laid to rest in the presence of his family and local residents.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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A section of Minab cemetery where students killed in the attack on the school—among the first victims of the US-Israeli attack on Iran—have been buried. The photos of so many children on their small gravestones give this part of the cemetery a haunting, almost uncanny appearance. It is as though the children are standing in their usual morning assembly at school.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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A photo of Hossein Rasouli—Amir Hossein Rasouli’s father—sitting with his family beside their young son’s grave on the first day of spring. Amir Hossein was nine years old and in third grade. He had joined the Red Crescent at school and, according to his mother, was eager to work with search-and-rescue teams when he grew up.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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One of her students sits by the grave of Mahsa Ranjbar, a 28-year-old sixth-grade teacher and the mother of a two-year-old daughter. Mahsa was also a gifted artist who specialized in charcoal sketching. On the second day of search and recovery efforts following the devastating bombing of the Minab school.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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Women from Minab carry the coffin of Razieh Zamani towards the town cemetery. Razieh, 34, taught third grade at Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls’ Primary School. The coffin contains only fragments of Razieh’s flesh and skin, mingled together.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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Zahra and Kazem, the parents of Danial Faqirdoust, a student killed in the US airstrikes on the school in Minab, sit in the courtyard of their home. Danial was ten years old. He loved football and dreamed of becoming a famous footballer. Danial’s body was identified at the Minab morgue, but his face had been burned by the blast and was unrecognizable.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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Samaneh Kamali, 26, taught fourth grade at the school in Minab that was bombed. She sits among the belongings left behind by students killed in the attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh School, at the local Department of Education, searching for traces of her pupils.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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Nasim Nistani’s family and close relatives sit beside her grave on the first day of spring. Nasim, 40, was one of the teachers killed in the US missile strikes on Shajareh Tayyebeh School. During the clearance of the school’s ruins, fragments of her body were found beneath pieces of concrete. Her brother identified her, but the condition of her face and the remains of her body was so distressing.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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One of the drawings made by Fatemeh Yazdanpanah, a seven-year-old student killed in the US missile strikes on the school in Minab. Fatemeh loved drawing. She dreamed of becoming a makeup artist and often played with her mother’s cosmetics at home. Her body was found with her schoolbag still on her shoulder.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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According to numerous residents who reached the school grounds just minutes after hearing the deafening explosions, the scenes they encountered were so horrific that they would never forget them: the dismembered bodies of children, hair torn from their heads, bloodied skulls, and the tiny wrists and severed legs of children scattered throughout the classrooms and schoolyard.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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Tayebeh Farahizadeh sits in the bedroom of her daughter, Esra, who was killed in the bombing of the Shajareh-Tayyebah school. Unable to process the loss, Tayebeh spends her days surrounded by Esra’s belongings, holding onto the dolls that she says still carry her daughter’s scent—the only remnants she has left. Esra, a first-grader who dreamed of becoming a pilot, was found in the school’s prayer.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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A portrait of Zahra, the mother of Arsha Mirani (7), one of the students killed in the US missile strikes on Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab on 28 February 2026. Zahra says: “My family wouldn’t let me see Arsha’s body before he was buried ... And now I live with this nightmare: was my son buried whole, or in pieces?”

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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An image of the burned hands and feet of Parastesh Zaeri (11), one of the students who survived the attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab. Parastesh was on the upper floor when the US missiles struck the school. A fire broke out upstairs, leaving severe burns on parts of her face, hands, back, and abdomen. She spent a month and a half in hospital.

© Zohreh Saberi - Image from the Hawking the Dreams photography project
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A group of women from Minab attend the funeral of students and teachers killed in the US airstrikes on Shajareh Tayyebeh School. Residents volunteered for three days to help clear the rubble from the school. Many were left deeply traumatized by what they witnessed.

Hawking the Dreams by Zohreh Saberi

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