She was found in the rubble by her father, Reza Zerai, 47, in the minutes after the attack.
“She was silly, full of energy, always laughing, singing, making up little poems,” Bastami, Raha’s aunt, told Foreign Policy. “Together we were always up to mischief. She loved school, and especially her teacher, and she kept telling us she wanted to study to become a dentist.”
She had thick curly hair and a contagious laugh, according to relatives interviewed by Foreign Policy. Her room was decorated with Hello Kitty wallpaper and she carried a unicorn-patterned backpack.
Several young gymnasts were also among the dead, according to Iran’s Gymnastics Federation and state media, including Reza Habashi, 7, Arina Arab-Kish, Atena Ahmadzadeh, Makan Nasiri, and Araz Ahmadi-Zadeh.
According to Human Rights Watch, the school was on the interior border of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Naval Forces compound, but the school is walled off and in a separate compound.