Islamic Republic's push to develop Shia holy city as a top Middle Eastern destination. [ dispatch ] Since the early 16th century, during the Safavid dynasty, the holy city of Qom has been a ...

The BBC's Sadeq Saba has visited the Iranian holy city of Qom, the spiritual home of Iran's conservative Islamic establishment and the source of some of the most outspoken dissent against the system.

AT FIRST glance the holy city of Qom, Iran's pre-eminent place of Shia scholarship, still feels pretty conservative. Almost all its women are covered from head to toe. Mullahs saunter by in flowing ...