An editorial published on the non-governmental Iraqi news website Mashregh has accused the authorities of "treason" for approving the construction of the avant-garde Vali-e-Asr mosque in Tehran.
The article claimed that the curvature of the mosque resembles that of a Jewish yarmulke and that the building's "completely neutral" design allegedly betrays an "atheistic approach." Yarmulke, or kippah is a small cloth cap worn by Jewish males.
One of the architects of the mosque, Reza Daneshmir, in turn explained that they had decided to opt for a modern design of gray stone and concrete instead of constructing traditional domes and minarets.
Fluid Motion Architects' Vali-E-Asr mosque in Tehran stirs controversy as it has no minaret or dome: https://t.co/bQcAskj2xj #tehran pic.twitter.com/6GK4o90F2E
— World Architecture (@WACommunity) 29 октября 2017 г.
According to him, Tehran's city officials first said the building did did not resemble the conventional form of a mosque, and that "it couldn't be done".
"I explained who the real audiences of this mosque are [and] I finally succeeded in persuading them. We wanted it to be an avant-garde project, not a conservative and backward one," Daneshmir said, in an apparent nod to young Iranians who are the Vali-e-Asr's permanent frequenters.
#Tehran’s modern #ValiEAsr #mosque W/O #minarets stirs controversy! https://t.co/pNdRTK0Seu #architecture #RezaDaneshmir #IRAN #tradition pic.twitter.com/8tlyrEO8He
— Iran Style (@Iran_Style) 24 октября 2017 г.
Located in a popular shopping area near Tehran University, the 25,000-square-meter (270,000 sq. feet) Vali-e-Asr mosque includes its own library, reading halls, classrooms and an amphitheater.
イラン・テヘランに新しく建設されたミナレットもドームもない『Vali-e-Asr Mosque』。外観だけ見たらモスクだと気がつかないな。https://t.co/KNWi6FkJdo pic.twitter.com/eGB1BOPdzm
— 野谷美佐緒 / MisaoNOYA (@misaonoya) 25 февраля 2018 г.
A whopping 16 million dollars was allocated for the 10-year construction of the mosque, which is scheduled to open its doors to the public in the next several months.
