TEHRAN – The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Seyyed Abbas Salehi, visited the “Minab School” group exhibition at the Art Bureau in Tehran on Thursday. 

During the visit, a number of the exhibiting artists were present and provided explanations about the process of creating and drawing the works, IRNA reported.

Following his visit to the exhibition, Salehi spoke to reporters about the importance of holding such an exhibition, stating: “The Minab School tragedy is, on one hand, a historical and global catastrophe, and on the other, for the Iranian nation, an unrepeatable and history-making event.”

“Documented evidence clearly shows that this incident was by no means an error, but rather was carried out completely deliberately,” he added. “In the first days of the incident, fathers and mothers were wandering in a daze, searching for their children, and parents of Makan Nasiri never found their child’s body”.

“Minab is a small city, and the martyrdom of more than one hundred students left the entire city in mourning. When I went to Minab this past May, the mourning was not limited to one family; the entire city was grieving. For this reason, the Minab tragedy is a global catastrophe that will not be forgotten in human historical memory, much like other great human disasters such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which have remained in history,” the minister noted.

Referring to his visit to the “Minab School” exhibition, he stated: “I attended the exhibition today to commend the artists who have set up this display; artists who are striving to turn this great incident into an enduring work and a living message, both on a national scale and in the global arena.”

“This year, in the upcoming festivals—the Short Film Festival, Cinema Verite (Documentary Film Festival), and the Fajr Film Festival—we will certainly see valuable films on the subject of the Ramadan Imposed War. Due to its length (40 days), its various dimensions, and its extended duration, the Ramadan Imposed War has provided special and unique opportunities for artistic narrative,” Salehi underlined.

“The Minab School tragedy, which we are currently visiting in this exhibition space, is an example of these capacities; as in these 19 works that I saw from the artists, each artist has looked at the Minab incident from a different angle and perspective and has narrated it through the language of art, which is a reflective, deep, and contemplative language. We have countless events during those 40 days of the Third Imposed War and the post-war period that have the capacity for artistic narration, whether in the form of images and cinema or in other forms of art that are no less effective than cinema,” he emphasized.

“A prominent feature of arts such as visual arts and painting is their power of rapid exchange; they can immediately transfer their message to new spaces, influence the audience, and engage their mind, memory, and soul. Therefore, all of Iran’s artistic capacities will be placed at the service of representing the resistance of the great nation of Iran,” the minister stressed.

At the end of his visit to the “Minab School” exhibition, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance wrote a note about the exhibition, the text of which is as follows: “The little angels of Minab School are the heavenly guardians of the land of Iran and will protect this ancient territory from monsters and beasts.”

The exhibition has been organized by the Nam Cultural and Artistic Institute, and features works by a number of prominent contemporary Iranian painters.

The exhibition features works by artists including Behzad Shishegaran, Sirous Moqaddam, Gholam-Ali Taheri, Morteza Asadi, Kazem Chalipa, Ali Nedai, Hassan Yaqouti, Abdolhamid Ghadirian, Mostafa Goudarzi, Nasser Seifi, Jamshid Haqiqatshenas, Seyyed Masoud Shojai Tabatabai, Kamyar Sadeqi, Seyyed Ali Mirfattah, Mahyar Charmchi, Mostafa Qorbani, Hossein Einibakhsh and Mohammad-Ali Naderi.

On February 28, the Shajareh Tayyebeh 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.

SS/