WANA (Aug 08) – In the early hours of Friday, June 13, distant explosions shattered the sleep of Mokhtar Bakouei. A veteran firefighter from Tehran’s Station 71, he realized as he got ready for work that the Narmak neighborhood—located in northeast Tehran— had also been struck by missile attacks.

 

A tremor passed through his heart. Narmak was where his sister lived. That was where his sister Mona’s home stood; the same house where her husband, Dr. Ali Bakouei, a nuclear scientist and boxing coach, lived with their two children, Yasamin and Armin.

WANA - Yasamin and Armin Bakouei

Yasamin and Armin Bakouei are the children of Dr. Ali Bakouei, an Iranian nuclear scientist. Social media/ WANA News Agency

Mokhtar could wait no longer. He jumped on his motorcycle and rushed to Hajizadeh Street, only to find his sister’s house reduced to rubble. The building had collapsed in smoke and silence. The fourth and fifth floors no longer existed. Flames blocked the path. Twisted columns, like broken bones, stood in the way.

 

But Mokhtar didn’t give up. After returning to the station and donning full gear, he entered the disaster site through a neighboring building and began a rescue operation—not to save strangers this time, but to find the bodies of his sister, her husband, and their children.

 

He describes scenes no family should ever witness. He first found the body of his sister Mona—her head had been severed from her body; the same was true for Ali Bakouei. Their 16-year-old son, Armin, who dreamed of becoming a doctor, was found several buildings away. But Yasamin, their 23-year-old daughter, was still missing.

 

The search for Yasamin, a graduate student at Sharif University of Technology, lasted more than six days. In the end, only fragments of her clothing and tissue were found—remnants sent for DNA testing to confirm her identity.

 

Yasamin was set to defend her thesis soon, but she never got the chance—neither to defend her research nor her life. She was working in the Internet of Things (IoT) field and had performed so well during her undergraduate studies that she was admitted to Sharif University without taking the entrance exam.

WANA - Yasamin Bakouei

Yasamin Bakouei. Social media/ WANA News Agency

She had started her Master’s in Computer Engineering (Architecture track) at Sharif in 2023, after completing her bachelor’s at Alzahra University.

 

Mokhtar Bakouei, the family’s uncle, speaks with a choked voice about his relationship with Yasamin and Armin — about his niece, who always confided in him, and his nephew, who followed football with passion and, at the same time, was determined to become a surgeon.

 

According to Mokhtar, Yasamin wanted to become an entrepreneur one day and support others under her wing — a girl with big dreams, in the prime of her blossoming.

 

During these attacks, Mokhtar and his colleagues pulled out more than 15 bodies from beneath the rubble, but this time, his professional mission had become entangled with a personal tragedy.

WANA - Mokhtar Bakouei

Mokhtar Bakouei. Social media/ WANA News Agency

He had put on the firefighter’s uniform to be a shelter for the people, but he never imagined he would one day become the shelter for his own family.

 

Dr. Ali Bakouei, the father of the family, was not only a distinguished scientist, but also a boxing referee and coach —a well-known figure among his peers, but unrecognized in the scientific sphere.

 

Majid Abbaszadeh, head of the Tehran Provincial Boxing Board, says that no one knew they were dealing with a scientific elite until after his death.

 

According to Abbaszadeh, Ali Bakouei passed referee and coaching exams with high scores, and was so devoted to his activities that just days before his death, he had been waiting for the date of a practical exam, and had students in the northeast of Tehran.

 

Dr. Ali Bakouei was responsible for teaching numerous physics courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels, with a focus on nuclear disciplines, and trained many students. He also had expertise in the fields of nuclear physics and renewable energies.

WANA - Dr. Ali Bakouei

Dr. Ali Bakouei, an Iranian nuclear scientist who was killed in an Israeli strike on June 13, 2025. Social media/ WANA News Agency

Some of his responsibilities and honors:

  • Faculty member, Head of the Atomic and Molecular Physics Department, and Chair of the Physics Division at Tarbiat Modares University
  • Scientific Counselor (Attaché) of Iran and Supervisor of Iranian Students in Russia, Belarus, and Central Asia for 6.5 years
  • The only Iranian recipient of the High Gold Medal of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
  • Awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the Russian Duma for promoting scientific relations between Iran and Russia

 

With his death, not only did the scientific and athletic communities suffer a loss, but an entire family was destroyed — a family whose children were symbols of hope and the future.

 

Alongside them, many others also lost their lives, including infants who didn’t even get the chance to discover the world. One of them was Rayan, just two months old…

 

But this is not merely a raw statistic of victims. Behind every number, there is a story; a story of lives left unfinished, of dreams buried under the rubble, and of families that will never be the same again.