TEHRAN-The national theater event “To Which Sin?” is being staged across multiple Iranian provinces to honor the memory of the Minab schoolchildren who lost their lives in a coordinated attack by the Zionist regime and the US.

The initiative aims to bring together child and youth theater artists from across the country, Mehr reported on Monday. 

Held as part of the “Iran Together” cultural campaign, the event marks the 40th day since the martyrdom of the students and is currently underway in 21 provinces. It started on Friday and is expected to continue until mid-April. 

Under this initiative, children’s and youth theater groups in different parts of the country are performing the same play to pay tribute to the students of Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab.

Over a 10-day period, the event will feature about 220 performances by 21 selected theater groups in various cities. The performances are being held in different provinces and at nightly public gatherings, offering an artistic portrayal of the grief and innocence of the Minab children while reflecting the solidarity and sympathy of the public with their families.

According to organizers, the event has received a strong public response, particularly because many performances are taking place during evening community gatherings, creating an atmosphere of broad empathy and support among audiences.

The theater event is part of the same broader artistic project designed by the Soore-ye Omid Institute, which earlier unveiled a multilingual collection under the same title in Persian, Arabic and English. Together, these initiatives aim to honor the memory of the Minab schoolchildren and other child victims of recent aggression against Iranian soil, while presenting their innocence and suffering through different artistic forms. 

While the first phase of the project used graphic posters and video productions to amplify the voices of the children killed in the attacks by the Zionist regime and the United States, the newer theater campaign has expanded that message into live performances across 21 provinces, turning remembrance into a nationwide cultural movement.

On February 28, the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan province, became the site of a devastating massacre as the United States and Israel initiated their strikes against Iran. 

While dozens of girls and boys aged between 7 and 12 were beginning their lessons, the school was targeted by a missile strike that caused the building to collapse, trapping children and teachers beneath the rubble. Iranian authorities confirmed a final death toll of 168 people, with at least 95 others wounded, marking one of the most harrowing incidents of the conflict's opening day.

Despite attempts by US and Israeli authorities to distance themselves from the carnage as images of the tragedy spread across social media, detailed forensic and digital investigations have painted a starkly different picture. 

An analysis by Al Jazeera’s digital investigations unit, utilizing over a decade of satellite imagery and recent video clips, revealed that the school was a clearly distinct civilian facility, separated from any adjacent military sites for at least ten years. Furthermore, witness accounts and satellite-based analyses confirmed that the school was triple tapped by three separate, deliberate strikes, leaving no doubt about the nature of the attack.

The international community has faced mounting evidence regarding the responsibility for this atrocity, with investigations from major global outlets including The New York Times, BBC Verify, CBC, and NPR all concluding that the United States was responsible for the strike. 

These findings have raised fundamental questions about the intelligence used to justify the bombing, as the patterns of the strike suggest a direct targeting of a civilian educational institution. The Minab school tragedy now stands as a somber testament to the immense human cost of the aggression and a focal point for those demanding international accountability.

SAB/