By E. Faye Williams
(Trice Edney Wire) – It has been reported that poor areas in Iran where people of African descent live have been among those first harmed. Others live there, too. Research has not confirmed how many of the students in the girls’ school that was bombed in the war against Iran had African blood, but they were God’s children and many were poor. Here’s what research found. This is a heavily documented and actively unfolding story.
What is confirmed across multiple major investigations is that on February 28, 2026, the first day of the 2026 Iran war, the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in the Shahrak-e Al-Mahdi neighborhood of Minab, Hormozgan province in southern Iran was destroyed by a missile strike. According to Iran state media, at least 175 people were killed, over 100 of them were school children. That is a tragedy no matter what their blood was.
The school was attended by a mix of children of military families and locals drawn by low tuition fees — some from the town of Minab itself, and others from outside. The fact that tuition was low might tell us many of the girls came from poor families. That would not be surprising.
Regarding the specific claim about African children of domestic workers: Reporting on the demographics of Minab notes that the people of Minab are a braided population — Arab, Persian, Baloch, descendants of African traders who sailed the ancient Indian Ocean routes — and they speak a dialect, Bandari, that carries the influence of the Gulf coast in every syllable is true. That tells us it is likely some young girls of African descent were killed, and our hearts go out to all families of the girls no matter what their descent is. No matter what, war is cruel and it is unforgivable that our military would be sent to the area where it was certain young schoolgirls would be killed.
I would not even support killing the schoolgirls of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard because children do not deserve having their lives taken because adults are acting without regard for the sanctity of life. How does a President of the United States tell the people he represents the idea that the Federal Government’s job is for military protection—not Medicaid, Medicare or Childcare! He went on to say states should just raise their taxes for those things! How easy it is for him to dismiss the role we have been led to believe we pay Federal taxes for education of our people, healthcare, and so many necessities of life.Trump and Hegseth are acting like kids playing games!
This war is not one of support or choosing by the American people or our representatives in Washington who were not even consulted! People who’re still struggling to buy gasoline to get to work, to buy food for their families, to send their children to college or to afford a comfortable home to live, didn’t vote for what the man who thinks he is king to decide his only job is to do away with the things families need, so he and Hegseth can spend their time conducting their wars we don’t support!
Amnesty International, which interviewed a teacher in Minab, and a Baluchi human rights defender, found where the girls died were children of people across the board, including the IRGC personnel and low-income families from the area, who include members of Iran’s oppressed Baluchi ethnic minority whether they were of African descent or not.
The Afro-Iranian community in Hormozgan (descendants of enslaved Africans brought via the Gulf trade) is real and historically documented — but the domestic worker framing as it applies to this school’s population needs further sourcing to confirm.
May God help our country and protect us from our so-called leaders. Thanks to Pope Leo for speaking to the issue of war. It’s not for our monetary gain!
(Dr. E. Faye Williams, President of The Dick Gregory Society)
