The school struck in February in Iran’s Minab was founded by the wife of senior IRGC commander Ali Fadavi as part of a wider educational project linked to the Guards’ navy, according to his remarks and an earlier Iranian media account.
Fadavi said Sunday that his late wife, Parvin Momen Zahmatkesh, founded around 97 Shajareh Tayyebeh schools across southern Iran, from Abadan to Chabahar. He discussed the network immediately after referring to the attack on its Minab school.
An earlier account published by the pro-establishment Fash News website on June 8 explicitly connected the Minab school to Momen Zahmatkesh’s work.
The account portrayed the Minab school as a partial realization of her ambition to create educational complexes, providing corroboration of its place in the network beyond Fadavi’s latest remarks.
From Rastegaran to Shajareh Tayyebeh
The schools were established inside or near IRGC Navy bases and organizational housing developments in southern Iran. Momen Zahmatkesh served as the force’s adviser on family affairs while her husband was its commander.
The Fash News account said she proposed establishing the schools and worked without a salary. It described her as a doctoral student in executive management and said the couple sold their home to help finance the project, subsequently securing support from the Education Ministry and donors.
The report tentatively dated the start of the project to 2013, in southern provinces along the Persian Gulf. The network expanded in the following years, with work continuing into 2025. Some facilities began as a single classroom or an older school or building refurbished with staff and charitable support.
The schools initially operated under the name Rastegaran between 2013 and 2015 before adopting Shajareh Tayyebeh.
The Minab attack
The Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab, in Hormozgan province, was struck on February 28, the opening day of the US-Israeli war against Iran. Local authorities subsequently put the death toll at 156, including 120 children.
Reuters reported in March that preliminary US military findings pointed to American responsibility, and the Pentagon elevated its investigation. President Donald Trump said in June that nobody had attacked the school intentionally. UN investigators said in September there were reasonable grounds to believe the US strike constituted a war crime.
A television appearance after rumors
Fadavi’s appearance on Sunday followed unverified social media rumors that he had been detained or sentenced to death for spying for Israel. Separate rumors alleged that his wife had died during interrogation.
He previously commanded the IRGC Navy and served as deputy commander of the Guards before being appointed head of the commander-in-chief’s advisory group in the Iranian month of Dey, spanning December 2025 and January 2026.
His television appearance contradicted rumors that he had been executed. Discussing his wife, he said she had “passed away” during the 12-day war in June 2025. He did not say she had been killed in an attack.
An earlier condolence message from then-IRGC commander Mohammad Pakpour, published on June 28, 2025, referred to her suffering from illness in the final years of her life. Pakpour was himself later killed during the 40-day war.
The Fash News account likewise said she had lived with diabetes for years and dated her death to Tir 1404, the Iranian month spanning late June and much of July 2025. It said she was buried in the Fatima al-Zahra section of the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad.
Fadavi’s wording differed from the customary official description of people killed in attacks as “martyrs.” The published illness accounts provide a more specific explanation than the unsupported claims circulating online.
Momen Zahmatkesh was born in the Iranian year 1337, corresponding to 1958–59. The couple’s home was on Isar 8 alley in Tehran’s Mahallati neighborhood, where many IRGC commanders lived.
A building on the same alley was bombed during the later 40-day war. Official accounts subsequently referred to it as the site of the deaths of the “Mahallati martyrs.” That later attack was separate from the period in which her death had already been publicly announced.
Educational and business interests
The couple’s involvement in education predated the southern school network. According to Iran International’s Persian reporting, they established the Naqsh-e Kowsar Cultural and Educational Complex in April–May 1997, when Fadavi was deputy commander of the IRGC Navy. Its stated activities included establishing technical and vocational schools for girls.
Momen Zahmatkesh also chaired the board of Shajareh Touba Ferdows, an institution established in 2017.
Private schooling has been an area of activity for other families of senior Iranian officials, including the wife of former parliament speaker Gholamali Haddad-Adel and relatives of current Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
Her business interests extended beyond education. In October–November 1993, she established the Alaleh Shalamcheh Agriculture and Livestock Company. Fadavi’s father, Mohammadali, joined the company in September–October 1996; both had left its board by 1999.
The enterprise now operates in Kordan, west of Tehran, as the Alaleh horse-breeding complex and riding club, according to the same report.
The warnings came during a day that also saw Iran execute two protesters detained during the January uprising, the Revolutionary Guards threaten a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, and Yemeni government forces launch a major offensive against the Iran-backed Houthis.
Netanyahu says Iran is fighting for survival
Iran’s leadership is weaker than at any point since its establishment and is fighting for survival, Netanyahu said at a ceremony marking the third anniversary of the October 7 attack.
“The tyranny is weaker than it has ever been since its establishment. It is fighting for its life, and its end is to disappear — or rather, to pass from the world,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu portrayed the October 7 attack as the opening stage of an Iranian-led effort to destroy Israel. He described what he called a three-pronged Iranian strategy involving armed groups surrounding Israel, thousands of missiles aimed at the country and nuclear weapons intended to destroy it.
“That was Iran’s three-pronged plan. But through our combined efforts, we crushed it, stage by stage,” Netanyahu said.
Israel struck Iran’s ballistic missile stockpiles and severely damaged its nuclear program, including scientists, facilities and infrastructure, Netanyahu added.
Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff chief Ali Abdollahi issued his own warning later Monday, saying any renewed conflict would spread beyond Iran and Israel.
“If a new war begins, its fire will engulf everyone,” Abdollahi said.
Iran would respond immediately and without limits if the United States launched another strike, regardless of whether Washington acted before or after congressional elections or at Israel’s urging, Abdollahi added.
IRGC threatens tanker in Strait of Hormuz
The military warnings coincided with a confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz, where a tanker turned back after the Revolutionary Guards hailed the vessel and threatened to target it if it continued its inbound transit, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said.
The encounter took place 11 nautical miles north of Khasab, Oman. The tanker’s master complied with the instruction and reversed course, UKMTO said.
The episode came as energy shipments through Hormuz showed signs of recovery. At least three liquefied natural gas shipments had exited the strait since late last week, extending a rebound in traffic, Bloomberg reported, citing ship-tracking data. Outbound LNG flows nevertheless remained more than 75% below prewar levels.
Iranian lawmaker Hassan Ghashghavi separately warned neighboring countries that their infrastructure could be targeted if Iranian infrastructure came under attack.
“We have told our neighbors that our security is your security, and our insecurity is your insecurity,” Ghashghavi, spokesman for parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said.
Yemen offensive puts Houthis under pressure
Yemen’s government forces opened another regional front on Monday, launching an operation against the Iran-backed Houthis and announcing advances around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Government forces took control of the strait and Dhubab airport and cut the road between Dhubab and Mokha, military spokesperson Colonel Majed al-Nuzaili said. Hundreds of Houthi fighters were surrounded in Dhubab, he added.
The Saudi-led coalition said it struck 324 targets during the operation and provided air protection over Bab el-Mandeb and air cover for Yemeni government forces.
Yemen’s presidential council earlier announced the launch of “Operation Dawn of Yemen,” which it said was intended to retake Sanaa and restore state institutions.
The developments placed the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, two strategic waterways at opposite ends of the Arabian Peninsula, at the center of Monday’s regional developments.
Executions and economic strain at home
Inside Iran, the judiciary confirmed the executions of Alireza Sepahi and Alireza Raisi, two protesters detained during the January 2026 protests.
The two men were defendants in the Alikhani Square case in Isfahan, in which five others had previously been executed. Iran’s Supreme Court upheld death sentences for 12 defendants in the case in July.
UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran Mai Sato condemned Sepahi’s execution and raised concerns about his treatment and judicial process. Sepahi’s lawyer was still seeking a review when the execution was carried out, Sato said.
Prince Reza Pahlavi’s communications office later vowed to pursue accountability for those involved in the executions through fair trials.
Economic difficulties also remained prominent. Workers across several sectors told Iran International that employers were delaying or splitting wage payments and cutting benefits, with some employees taking second jobs to meet everyday expenses.
The combination of military warnings abroad and political, economic and security developments at home kept the possibility of renewed conflict and its consequences at the center of Iran’s news on Monday.
