School closures have disrupted the lives of Iranian families since the U.S.-Israel war began on February 28, leaving working parents to supervise their children’s online classes while juggling employment. A fragile ceasefire now in effect is expected to expire early next week, leaving families uncertain whether schools will reopen or the conflict will reignite.
The education disruption compounds the humanitarian toll of the war, which killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, including more than 165 in an airstrike on a school. As families grapple with prolonged displacement and economic pressure, a threatened U.S. naval blockade looms as a further threat to Iran’s already struggling economy.
Mahnaz Ataei, a financial manager in Tehran, brings her 7-year-old son to the office and supervises his online classes while attempting to work. For thousands of Iranian families, the arrangement has become a daily scramble. “My productivity drops when I have to pay attention to my son and my work at the same time,” Ataei said. “The hardest part is trying to balance work and online classes, and always being stressed about whether he’s really learning his lessons well.”
Schools have been closed throughout Iran since the U.S.-Israel war began on February 28, with no reopening date set. Brief online instruction in March around Nowruz was followed by distance learning resuming on April 4. Yet with a fragile ceasefire expected to expire early next week, families remain uncertain whether schools will stay open or the conflict will reignite.
The war has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, including more than 165 in a single school airstrike. With the U.S. and Iran far apart on key issues like enriched uranium, a threatened U.S. naval blockade compounds the dangers facing Iran’s already-struggling economy.
Displacement and crowding
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians abandoned Tehran and other cities in search of safety during the war’s early weeks, relocating to rural or northern areas deemed less vulnerable to airstrikes. The displacement created its own stresses: overcrowding, financial strain, and interrupted routines.
Roya Amiri, a homemaker, fled Tehran with her two children—ages 10 and 18—when bombardment began. The family joined hundreds of thousands evacuating the capital and stayed with relatives in a house that soon held more than a dozen people. Her 10-year-old son has a respiratory illness, and finding his medication proved difficult during the evacuation chaos.
“I feel like I’m suspended: neither in the air nor on the ground,” Amiri said of the uncertainty after returning to Tehran recently. She decided that the return to her own home and routine outweighed the shelter of larger family groups. “I was tired of living communally. I wanted to go back to my own house and my routine,” she said. “I missed Tehran.”
Reza Jafari and his wife made a similar evacuation, taking their children to stay with her relatives. The house quickly filled with more than a dozen family members. “As the sound of explosions was distressing and my children were terrified, I left Tehran for their peace of mind,” Jafari said. Though the arrangement was crowded, he found value in the enforced closeness. “I was glad to be with relatives. It felt like a forced, but valuable, opportunity to reconnect,” he said.
Working through the school day
For families who remained or returned to the capital, managing children’s schooling alongside employment has created daily pressure. Padideh Teymourian, an architect, and her husband Amir Ramezani, who owns a jewelry business, reorganized their schedules around their 6-year-old daughter’s online schooling.
Teymourian’s office does not permit remote work and requires employees without paid leave to request unpaid leave. Ramezani altered his schedule to supervise their daughter’s classes during the day, while Teymourian takes approximately 1.5 hours of hourly leave each day to cover gaps in childcare. Ramezani often returns home late at night, long after their daughter is asleep, making family dinners infrequent.
“This has put economic and emotional pressure on both of us,” Teymourian said. “Life passes at full speed. You don’t even realize how the day turns to night. We’re just letting time pass until things go back to how they were.”