In recent weeks several Iranian cities in the south and southeast of country faced sandstorms. Several bloggers say that Iranian media did not cover these events, but they provided films and photos in their blogs themselves.
Vatanema has filmed a sandstrom in the southern city Ahwaz [1] in the oil rich Khuzestan [2] province. The blogger says [3] [fa]:
I imitated Americans who name everything, calling their hurricane Gustav [4]. I am calling this storm Jasem. It seems that between four and eight people perished in this storm, just like what happened in Gustav.
Here is the video:
Badahwazi also took and published [5] photos from the sandstorm in Ahwaz.
You can find more photos [6] of the storm in Zirsigari‘s photoblog.
Meanwhile, Mohmmad Darvish, a leading environmentalist, talks [7] [fa] about sandstorms in the Sistan and Balouchestan [8] province.
He says:
Iranian media all talked about Gustav but ignored the sand storms in the Sistan and Baluchistan province particularly in Zabol [9] .It seems the oppressed of this world should remain oppressed on all levels. Just compare the number of films that Iranian national TV broadcast about Gustav, to the number of films about sand storms in the Zabol or Khuzestan provinces.