Avant-garde mosque angers hardliners in Iran
TEHRAN (AP) — A newly built avant-garde mosque in the heart of Iran’s capital would have hardliners shouting from the minarets — if there were any.
The architects behind the Valie-Asr mosque dispensed with the traditional rounded domes and towering minarets, opting instead for a modern design of undulating waves of gray stone and concrete, which they say complements the surrounding architecture and evokes the austerity of early Islam.
The new structure has infuriated hardliners, who see it as part of a creeping secular onslaught on the Islamic republic. An editorial posted on the
Mashregh news website compared the curvature to that of a Jewish yarmulke, accusing authorities of “treason” for approving it. The “completely neutral” design betrays an “atheistic approach,” it said.
The mosque has emerged as the latest battleground in a longstanding culture war between hardliners and Iran’s vibrant artistic community, which has hoped — often in vain — for greater openness since President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, was elected in 2013.
The 25,000-square-meter structure rises smoothly from a major intersection, in a popular shopping area near Tehran University that also hosts cultural and artistic events. It is adjacent to the City Theater of Tehran, an iconic building dating back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The mosque, which was completed after 10 years at a cost of $16 million, includes its own library, reading halls, classrooms and amphitheater. It is expected to open to the public within the coming months
Reza Daneshmir, one of the architects, said he struggled for months before finally convincing authorities that a traditional mosque would look out of place at the site. He even argued his case before a parliamentary committee.
City officials “objected and said it did not look like a mosque, did not resemble the conventional form of a mosque, and that it couldn’t be done,” he said.