Structure Purported as Mosque Raises Questions

Date: 25 February 2018 - 21:39

News ID: ۵۰۴۷۹

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- A newly built mosque in the heart of Iran's capital has drawn criticism from many mosque-goers, who see it as an aberration from traditional Islamic architecture.
The architects behind the Vali-e-Asr mosque dispensed with the traditional rounded domes and towering minarets, opting instead for a design of undulating waves of grey stone and concrete, which they claim complement the surrounding architecture, evoking the austerity of early Islam.
An editorial posted on the Mashregh news website compared the curvature of the mosque to that of a Jewish yarmulke, criticizing authorities for approving it.
The "completely neutral" design betrays an "atheistic approach", the editorial said.
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.
Adjacent to the City Theatre of Tehran — an iconic building dating back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution — the mosque includes its own library, reading halls, classrooms and amphitheatre.
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," Daneshmir said.
"I finally succeeded in persuading them … we wanted it to be an avant-garde project, not a conservative and backward one," he said.
Daneshmir and his co-designer, Catherine Spiridonoff, claim that the dome structure, which had been used in pagan and Christian architecture for centuries before the arrival of Islam, was only adopted later, as were minarets.
Despite many questions and protests about the structure, it was completed, after 10 years and at a cost of around $20 million.