A newly built avant-garde mosque in the heart of Iran’s capital has infuriated hard-liners, who see it as part of a creeping secular onslaught on the Islamic republic.
It has also emerged as the latest battleground in a culture war between hard-liners and Iran’s vibrant artistic community, which has hoped for greater openness since President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, was elected in 2013.
The architects behind the Vali-e-Asr mosque, which is to open to the public in the coming months, say that instead of traditional rounded domes and towering minarets, they opted for a modern design of undulating waves of gray stone and concrete.
An editorial posted on the Mashregh news website compared the curvature to that of a Jewish yarmulke, accusing authorities of “treason” for approving it.
