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Sahar Fathy reads 'Maktub' and prefaced it with an epigraph citing a February 28, 2026 school strike
Summary
Sahar Fathy prefaced her poem 'Maktub' with an extended epigraph describing a Feb. 28, 2026 missile strike on Shajore Taibe Girls Elementary School and cited UNICEF casualty estimates; she then read a poem connecting that grief to personal memory. The epigraph was presented as part of the poem's context and attributed to the reader.
Sahar Fathy, introduced at the event as an Iranian American lawyer and a 2026 NAFRA Arts Fellow, prefaced her poem 'Maktub' with an extended epigraph describing a missile strike on a girls' elementary school and citing casualty figures. In the epigraph she said: "On 02/28/2026, the Shajore Taibe Girls Elementary School in Minna, Iran was destroyed by a missile strike... According to UNICEF, an estimated 180 civilians were killed, including 168 girls." The epigraph appears in transcript text presented by Fathy as factual context for her poem.
Fathy then read 'Maktub,' which uses familial and ancestral language to process the described loss; she told the audience the poem title comes from a term meaning "it is written" or destiny. The reading mixed personal memory, grief and advocacy, with Fathy saying, "My people, they are on fire," as a refrain and closing line that framed the poem's emotional thrust. The descriptions in her epigraph are presented here as claims she read aloud; they are attributed to Fathy and cited to UNICEF in her remarks rather than verified independently by this account.
