{"id":224,"date":"2026-03-28T14:58:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T14:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/?p=224"},"modified":"2026-04-07T10:50:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:50:32","slug":"iranian-players-hold-schoolbags-to-honour-girls-killed-in-minab-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/28\/iranian-players-hold-schoolbags-to-honour-girls-killed-in-minab-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian players hold schoolbags to honour girls killed in Minab strike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>ISLAMABAD<\/strong>: Iran\u2019s men\u2019s national football team wore black armbands and held schoolbags as their \u200canthem played ahead of a match in Turkey on Friday, in what a team official said was a protest over the killing of schoolgirls on the first day of the Iran war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran were playing a friendly against Nigeria in the Mediterranean \u200bresort town of Belek ahead of the World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada, \u200bat which their participation is in doubt due to the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The men lined up \u2060holding pink and purple bags with ribbons on them \u2014 a reference to the attack on the \u200bShajareh Tayyebeh School that Tehran says killed more than 175 people, including children and teachers, on the \u200bfirst day of joint US-Israeli strikes on the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, a vice president of the Iranian football federation, told that the players had decided to stage the protest as a symbolic gesture of solidarity with the victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey \u200bwere deeply affected by the bombing of the girls\u2019 school and wanted to express their sympathy,\u201d \u200bNabi said, speaking in Farsi through the association\u2019s translator. \u201cThis was a collective decision by the team. We are united.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>US \u200cmilitary investigators \u2060believe it is likely that US forces were responsible but have not yet reached a final conclusion or completed their investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The UN rights chief urged Washington on Friday to conclude its investigation into the strike at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking in front of the stadium, Nabi said the \u200bteam was aware of the \u200bdiscussions taking place \u2060at the rights council and hoped for a \u201cclear and appropriate decision\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>US President \u200bDonald Trump \u2060said earlier this month that while Iran\u2019s national team were welcome to play in the US, it might not be appropriate for their \u201clife and safety\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran\u2019s football federation said it was in discussions with football\u2019s world \u2060governing body \u200bFIFA about moving its World Cup matches to Mexico from \u200bthe US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Iranian team lost 2-1 to Nigeria on Friday and will play Costa Rica on Tuesday in another friendly in \u200bTurkey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD: Iran\u2019s men\u2019s national football team wore black armbands and held schoolbags as their \u200canthem played ahead of a match in Turkey on Friday, in what a team official said was a protest over the killing of schoolgirls on the first day of the Iran war. Iran were playing a friendly against Nigeria in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[26],"class_list":{"0":"post-224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"authors":[{"term_id":26,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"diplo_08h0gvsn","display_name":"admin","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e6cf434bc1a9c23b46b4bf3de554fd867925e08143ff250e042337cade11b3ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions\/228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}