Sunday, June 21, 2009
As protests and counter-protests erupt across Tehran, unlike anything seen since the 1979 Revolution, LIFE presents photographs taken by an Iranian who is there, in the midst of the unfolding revolution.
The Tehran-based photojournalist who took these pictures is now missing.
Please visit these real time links for information on the Iranian revolution:
Iranian Election on Twitter
Tehran Bureau on Twitter
Mousavi on Twitter
Tehran on Twitter
From the Left 
The Iranian Basiji police swept through Tehran last night under cover of darkness beating and shooting suspected opposition protesters. Were journalists also targeted?
CNN, not always the most reliable source, said the Basiji numbers as many as 1 million.
Journalists risk life and limb to get the “story” to the world. Not the swells, hold-up in the comfy CNN, FOX and MSNBC studios in New York City but no one would ever mistake these people for journalists. At best, they’re news readers. I really hope the LIFE photo journalist isn’t dead but safely in hiding.
Thanks for keeping us informed, Christopher. I am certain this photo journalist is either in jail or dead. Ahmadinejad does want more proof of the excess of his government known to the world. He once served in the military police, so he understands the power of secrecy.
Che Guevara said…
“Democracy cannot consist solely of elections that are nearly always fictitious and managed by rich landowners and professional politicians.”
“The feeling of revolt will grow stronger every day among the peoples subjected to various degrees of exploitation, and they will take up arms to gain by force the rights which reason alone has not won them.”
“In a revolution one wins or dies, if it is a real one.”
Iran could use a Che right now.
Iranian state TV is reporting that the daughter of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, a senior cleric and an architect of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been arrested along with four other relatives. Why would this woman be considered a threat to that rat-faced SOB Ahmadinejad?
I hope he has not been killed, and dictators can kill people, but they can not kill the truth.
For all of those who died, they died for a noble cause.
The truth will be revealed.
I haven’t seen much coverage of the protests on the cable news channels today. Does this mean things have died down in Iran and the people are accepting the stolen reelection of Ahmadinejad? I hope not. Iran can’t sit by and accept this the way Americans sat on our asses and accepted the theft of the 2000 presidential election.
Where is Obama?
At least the Congress passes a resolution sending a message of support to the Iranian people in support of the protest.
Where is Obama? His timid mumblings were too late, too little. His silence during this momentous time in history, as the Iranian people seek to advance freedom says volumes to the youth of Iran and to the rest of the world.
Yes, Obama cited the great Martin Luther King but so out of context to be ridiculous. Any student of history knows Che Guevara is the person he should have quoted.
The best thing he can do now is go back to reading his press clippings because we do not expect him to stand with us.
Parvin1968,
I’m not sure what you expect or want President Obama to do at this point? Do you want him to send in the U.S. military?
After we meddled in the internal affairs of Iran back in 1953 and had the CIA reinstall the Shah, then took sides in the Iran/Iraq war, and then tried to shape the direction of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, I think the U.S. may have finally learned to butt-the-hell out of the affairs of your country.
I think Obama has struck the right chord with his comments. I’m sorry you disagree.
I agree with Tom339. There’s a lot we can criticize Obama for but his response to Iran isn’t one of them.
Were it not for blogs like yours and the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, the U.S. would have to rely on the propaganda news outlets like CNN and FOX. Keep up the good work! By the way, phone lines to Tehran, Iran work best if you call from eastcoast time past 10 p.m. when call volume is at a minimum.
seywan – Oddly enough, landlines work better to Iran than cell phones.
This has been my experience.
Journalists are disappearing in Iran like green paint.
ABC reported today a NEWSWEEK journalist in Tehran has also gone missing. This isn’t good and indicates the government wants the flow of news and information coming out of Iran to the west to come to a halt.
Does Iran have a Gitmo?