In the quiet neighbourhoods of Zanjan, the loss of a guiding light was felt before it was even announced. On the night of March 27, as a US-Israeli airstrike targeted a civilian neighbourhood in the Koocheh Meshki area, Roqiyeh Shiri, a beloved first-grade teacher, ascended to the ranks of the martyred. She was struck down alongside her husband and her nine-year-old daughter, Fatemeh, becoming the first educator from Zanjan Province to attain martyrdom during the third imposed war.
Even before the news of the aggression was officially confirmed, her colleagues knew in their hearts that tragedy had struck. Samaneh Nasiri, the principal of Esmat Seyrfian School, and a fellow teacher shared a tearful intuition that their cherished Roqiyeh had met her Lord.
Roqiyeh was a woman defined by her immense generosity and selflessness. Just two days before her martyrdom, she had declined her own Nowruz gift card, insisting it be given to a struggling student’s family instead. When presented with a box of traditional sweets, she quietly took them out into the night and left them at a roadside social service stall for those in need.
Inside the classroom, she poured her soul into the next generation. For three years, she devoted herself entirely to first graders, earning the profound trust of parents who requested her by name. She went to extraordinary lengths for her students, fighting to keep a displaced girl enrolled in her class and organising extended family members to help a young child practice reading because the girl’s parents were deaf.
She did not just teach; she nurtured the future of her nation with boundless compassion. Her colleagues remember her constant smile, her gentle jokes, and her unwavering reliability.
Yet, beneath her warm demeanour lay a profound spiritual yearning. Roqiyeh had long harboured a heartfelt wish for martyrdom, viewing it as the highest honour. That sacred wish was fulfilled when the missiles of aggression rained down upon her home. Together with her young daughter, who had grown up in the very halls where her mother taught, Roqiyeh took flight from this world.
Though she is gone, her legacy of sacrifice and her ultimate offering for her homeland remain etched in the hearts of her students, her colleagues, and the resilient Iranian nation. She leaves behind a radiant path of service, proving that true educators shape not only the minds of the youth but also the spiritual fortitude of a nation at war.