Parnia Abbasi, a 24-year-old Iranian poet and English teacher, was killed along with her family in an Israeli airstrike on June 12 that struck a residential complex in Tehran’s Sattarkhan neighbourhood.
Abbasi died alongside her father, Parviz Abbasi, a retired teacher; her mother, Masoumeh Shahriari, a retired bank employee; and her younger brother, Pahram Abbasi, a university student. The attack targeted their home in the Orchideh Complex on Sattarkhan Street.
At least 80 people – including 20 children – have been killed in Iran by Israeli attacks.
Widely regarded as a rising voice among Iran’s new generation of poets, Abbasi was known for her contemplative and emotionally resonant verse. Her most recognised poem, The Extinguished Star, was published in the literary magazine Vazn-e-Donya as part of a special issue on Gen Z poets.
“I look at everything that happens to me as something I might be able to write down — to express the feeling I had in that moment through poetry,” she said in the accompanying interview.
In addition to her literary contributions, Abbasi was an English teacher and a staff member at the Central Branch of Bank Melli. She held a degree in English Translation from Qazvin International University and had been accepted into a master’s program in management, which she had deferred to continue working.
According to reports, the strike was allegedly aimed at Dr. Abdulhamid Minouchehr, a nuclear scientist and professor at Beheshti University who resided in the same building.
The attack comes amid a series of escalating Israeli military operations reportedly targeting Iranian nuclear scientists and infrastructure. Iranian media reported on Friday that at least six nuclear scientists have been killed in recent strikes.
Abbasi’s poem The Extinguished Star reads:
You and I will come to an end
Somewhere
The most beautiful poem in the world
Falls quiet.
Friends and colleagues have remembered Abbasi as “full of life and poetry.” Her death has sparked an outpouring of grief and condemnation from cultural organisations and the wider public, who mourn the loss not only of key scientific figures but also of innocent civilians and emerging artistic voices.
