Iranian children back to school after war closures

TLE DESK: Children in Iran returned to class on Wednesday after months of closures over the Middle East war, where major attacks have included a strike on a school that killed 150 people.

Parents walked hand-in-hand with their daughters, in mandatory headscarves and uniforms, as they arrived at a girls’ primary school in western Tehran for the first day of the new academic year.

Classes were cancelled after the beginning of the war on February 28, when a school in the southern city of Minab was hit leaving 120 children among the dead.

In Minab on Wednesday, Iran’s vice president for science and technology, Hossein Afshin, rang a bell at one primary school to signal the start of the new term.

The bell-ringing, normally carried out by Iran’s president, is part of the traditional celebrations to welcome Iran’s 16.5 million children back to school.

A ceremony featuring Masoud Pezeshkian was held two days early this year, before he left for the United Nations General Assembly in New York.