This Tehran Music School Took Ages to Build Up. Airstrikes Turned It to Rubble.

A musician in Tehran heard alarms from an anti-theft system and drove to the Pirouzi district after smoke rose from afar. He found the Jalal Building largely in ruins after a U.S.-Israeli airstrike on March 23, 2026. The Honiak Music Academy, co-founded in 2024, was destroyed along with a gynecologist’s clinic and a small marketing agency, all on the fourth floor of a 22-unit building. The co-founder said the school was not political and not connected to armed forces, and he focused on the broader cultural and social damage. The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported that more than 125,000 civilian buildings were damaged or destroyed during the preceding 39 days of war.

"Hamidreza Afarideh Tehran's sky was still half-lit around 5:00 am on March 23 and the Iranian capital's characteristic traffic jam hadn't formed yet. Hamidreza Afarideh hadn't left for work, but he heard blaring alarms from a remote anti-theft system on his phone that suggested something ominous may have happened at his workplace."

"When Afarideh approached the Jalal Building, he found most of it in ruins. The Honiak Music Academy, which he had co-founded in 2024 with his wife, Sheida Ebadatdoust, had been destroyed, along with a gynecologist's clinic and the office of a small marketing agency. They were all located on the fourth floor of a 22-unit building hit by a U.S.-Israeli airstrike."

""We weren't political, we weren't in the armed forces. Maybe they wanted to target a different building behind us or in front of us. These are not important to me," Afarideh said in an online interview with Truthout that was significantly slowed down due to state-mandated internet restrictions in Iran."

""This incident is a cultural pain. It's a social pain. It's a shared global issue and not limited to a specific geography," he added. According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, more than 125,000 civilian buildings were damaged or destroyed during the 39 days of war on Iran that preceded a tenuous ceasefire."

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