Advertisement
Babylon & Beyond

IRAN: Snapshots from Esfahan after disputed election

By Alexandra Zaviswriter 
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Because of the heavy restrictions imposed on the news media in Iran, it is hard to know what is happening outside of the capital, Tehran. But these pictures, which were sent to The Times from the central Iranian city of Esfahan, seem to show a massive protest this week in a place famous for its Islamic architecture, including palaces, mosques, covered bridges and one of the largest city squares in the world.

Authorities have sought to portray the unrest as only among highly educated residents of Tehran, where thousands took to the streets again today in defiance of warnings from the nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Advertisement

But if these images are what they purport to be, they suggest much broader anger against the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a poll marred by accusations of fraud.

-- Alexandra Zavis in Los Angeles

Babylon & Beyond
Alexandra Zavis

Alexandra Zavis is a former writer and editor on the Los Angeles Times’ Foreign Desk who has reported from more than 40 countries. She spent a decade with the Associated Press, covering Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, among other war-torn places. After joining The Times in 2006, she has served as a Baghdad correspondent and as a California reporter covering poverty and veterans issues. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Award for distinguished reporting on foreign affairs and was part of teams of reporters awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for foreign correspondence and APME’s International Perspective Award. She is a graduate of Oxford University and City University in London.

Advertisement