Iran’s national team will compete in the 2026 World Cup under the name “Minab 168,” the Tehran Times, a website identified with the Iranian regime, reported Tuesday. The name refers to the strike on the Shajareh Tayebah girls’ school in the southern Iranian city of Minab, which occurred on the first day of Operation Roaring Lion and has since become one of the regime’s central symbols.
According to Iranian reports affiliated with the regime, 168 people were killed in the strike, including dozens of schoolgirls ages 7 to 12. The Tehran Times described the incident as “one of the saddest chapters in the history of the region.” The incident also was widely covered outside Iran, while claims that an Iranian missile had hit the school were denied.
The Iranian regime made extensive use of the Minab strike throughout the current war, mainly as part of its public diplomacy and propaganda campaign against Israel and the United States. Tehran presented the incident as proof of its claims that Israel and the U.S. target civilian sites and harm innocents. At pro-regime demonstrations, public events and various ceremonies, tributes were held for those killed in the strike, including repeated use of pink schoolbags, which became a symbol associated with the incident.
This is not the first time Iranian soccer has been enlisted for such a tribute. On March 27, it was reported that Iran’s national team took the field for a match against Nigeria in Turkey with pink and purple bags placed on the grass in memory of those killed in the Minab strike. The images were distributed by Iranian media, which stressed that “Iran’s national soccer team commemorates the war dead.”
In the upcoming World Cup, Iran was drawn into Group 7, where it will face Egypt, Belgium and New Zealand.
First published: 00:08, 04.29.26