P U L S E

Officially opened in May 2009,  the beautiful Sakirin Mosque in Turkey is the result of a direct effort to merge antiquity with modernity in a society immersed in constant and contentious debates about religion and secularism. The interior of the mosque was designed by Zeynep Fadillioglu, a famous British-Turkish female interior designer, and is located among several other classical mosques. In a 2008 BBC article Fadillioglu, who is not religious herself, admitted that she wept tears of joy when she was asked to join the project:

Especially at a time when so much is being discussed wrongly of Islam not allowing women to have equal rights. The fact that a woman can build a mosque disproves this.

The issue of women’s rights and Islam is certainly not clear cut and those who discuss it in polar terms (as people often do) are either not aware of, or choose to ignore, certain inherent complexities, but creations like this are representative of tides of change which are penetrating Islamic societies and creating spaces for debate.

Notes Fadillioglu:

There are big discussions on whether Western values are to be integrated with Islamic values, or whether two different communities will remain divided.

I think this mosque has all the Western and Eastern values nicely blended. We wanted to go with the flow of Islam, while at the same time creating something contemporary.

You can see more pictures of Sakirin Mosque here.

Tagged: Religion, Sakirin Mosque, Secularism, Turkey, Zeynep Fadillioglu