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WOMEN TAKE LEAD IN BUILDING MOSQUE IN TURKEY
By Ivan Watson
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/0 7/13/turkey.mosque.women/
July 13 2009
ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- There is a shiny addition among the Ottoman
mosques and palaces that make up Istanbul's stunning skyline: the
metallic, mirrored dome of the new Sakirin Mosque, a Muslim place of
worship built with a woman's touch.
When sun reflects off the metallic dome of Sakirin Mosque, the flash
of light can be seen across the Bosphorus Strait.
more photos " For what may be the first time in history, women have
been at the forefront of the construction of a mosque in Turkey.
One of the project's leaders is Zeynep Fadillioglu, an interior
decorator who has designed restaurants, hotels and luxury homes
from New Delhi, India, to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates,
and London, England.
She helped organize a team of traditional mosque artists specializing
in Islamic calligraphy, along with craftsmen in glassworks,
metal-casting and lighting who, like Fadillioglu, have built careers
working in exclusively secular architecture and design.
"I want people to feel peaceful and be left with themselves as much
as possible and yet have beautiful art and artistic symbolism around
them," she said.
Istanbul has a venerable tradition of mosque architecture, dating
back centuries to when Ottoman sultans declared themselves caliph,
or spiritual leader of the Muslim world. Watch Zeynep Fadilioglu show
off her work and inspirations "
The shores of the Bosporus Strait are studded with 16th century
masterpieces such as the Suleymaniye Mosque, built by the Ottoman
Empire's most famous architect, Mimar Sinan, and ornate, neo-Baroque
jewels designed by the Armenian Balyan family in the 19th century. But
Istanbul's most senior Muslim cleric laments that mosque design
suffered a decline after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the
wake of World War I.
"In the last 70, 80 years, we have built mosques that are copies
of Ottoman architecture," said Mustafa Cagrici, the mufti of
Istanbul. "This wasn't a good development, because the copy can never
be as good as the original."
Fadillioglu and her team of artists are hoping to change that. Look
at photos of the mosque "
The Sakirin Mosque was commissioned by a wealthy Turkish Arab family
and built in one of Istanbul's oldest cemeteries.
The designers put a number of contemporary touches on the structure,
giving it plate glass walls etched with gold-leaf verses from the
Quran, framed by giant cast-iron grids.
Fact Box "If we think about this place as a home of God, we can also
say women will make this place much better."
Carpenter Metin Cekeroglu The mihrab -- the alcove that points
worshippers in the direction of Mecca -- is made of asymmetrical ovals,
similar to a design used by Fadillioglu to decorate a restaurant in
London. And the chandelier is a multi-layered series of metal and
plexiglass rings, carrying Quranic inscriptions and dripping with
scores of delicate glass teardrops.
"The glass chandelier brings the high dome down to the people,"
Fadillioglu explained. "So when they pray and kneel they don't feel
lost with the light and it shelters them."
Many of the artists here never worked on a mosque before.
"It's special that a woman's hand is involved in this," said one of
them, a male carpenter named Metin Cekeroglu. "If you think about it,
a home is made by woman. And if we think about this place as a home
of God, we can also say women will make this place much better."
Fadillioglu said one of her goals was to bring extra attention into
the design of the women's section of the mosque, an area that she
says is often neglected by architects. According to Islamic tradition,
worshippers are segregated by gender at mosques.
"I have seen mosques where women have been pushed to the worst part
of stairs, cramped area. Sort of as if (they are) unwanted in the
mosque," she said. "That is not what Islam is about. ... Women are
equal in Islam to men"
Five minutes' drive from the Sakirin Mosque stands the Mihrimah
Sultan Mosque, a 16th century structure built by Sultan Suleiman the
Magnificent in honor of his favorite daughter. Unfortunately, female
worshippers do not get to enjoy its stunning stained glass windows
the way the men do. They have to pray in a small women's section,
hidden behind a bank of chest-high shelves that store shoes.
At the Sakirin Mosque, Fadillioglu said, she gave women praying on
the balcony an unobstructed view of the dome, the ornate chandelier,
and the area on the floor where the imam will lead prayers.
"I would like to come here to pray," said Elif Demir, an 18-year old
art student with a funky, orange-dyed haircut who was working on the
chandelier. "This mosque is completely different because of the light
that's coming through the walls, through the glass."
Fadillioglu's role in the Sakirin Mosque is all the more surprising
because she comes from a jet-set side of Turkish society not normally
associated with Islam.
"It is unusual," she conceded, "because first of all not many modern
people have been commissioned to design a mosque."
She spoke in a recent interview at Ulus 29, the expensive Istanbul
hilltop restaurant and bar that is owned by her husband. Amid the
Ottoman- and Selcuk-inspired flourishes she has sprinkled around the
restaurant are echoes of designs seen at the Sakirin Mosque. A glass
chandelier made of hundreds of crystal tear drops hangs above the bar,
similar in style to the mosque's chandelier.
Fadillioglu said being a night club owner does not prevent her from
also being a Muslim.
"You might be surprised in Turkey to find some very modern-looking
people being very religious at the same time," she said.
Religion is a hot-button political issue in Turkey, a predominantly
Muslim country with a strict secular system of government.
For the past eight years a fierce power struggle has been under way
between an urban secular elite and a rising new class of religiously
conservative Turks from the Anatolian heartlands. Unlike the wives
of Turkey's Islamic-rooted president and prime minister, Fadillioglu
does not wear the Islamic headscarf that is often seen as the symbol
of this new class of Turks.
Fadillioglu said politics have polarized society.
"In my childhood ... you didn't differentiate between who was
religious," she explained. "Whoever wants to worship or visit this
mosque, its open, its ready for them."
On May 8, Turkey's prime minister attended an inauguration ceremony
for the Sakirin Mosque.
Afterward, in an interview with CNN, the mufti of Istanbul called it
the start of a new era of mosque design in Turkey.
"It is in Islamic tradition for women to commission mosques ... and now
we have women who are building mosques as well," Cagrici said. "God
willing, I hope the world will see more of these beautiful mosques,
touched by women's hands."
By Ivan Watson
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/0 7/13/turkey.mosque.women/
July 13 2009
ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- There is a shiny addition among the Ottoman
mosques and palaces that make up Istanbul's stunning skyline: the
metallic, mirrored dome of the new Sakirin Mosque, a Muslim place of
worship built with a woman's touch.
When sun reflects off the metallic dome of Sakirin Mosque, the flash
of light can be seen across the Bosphorus Strait.
more photos " For what may be the first time in history, women have
been at the forefront of the construction of a mosque in Turkey.
One of the project's leaders is Zeynep Fadillioglu, an interior
decorator who has designed restaurants, hotels and luxury homes
from New Delhi, India, to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates,
and London, England.
She helped organize a team of traditional mosque artists specializing
in Islamic calligraphy, along with craftsmen in glassworks,
metal-casting and lighting who, like Fadillioglu, have built careers
working in exclusively secular architecture and design.
"I want people to feel peaceful and be left with themselves as much
as possible and yet have beautiful art and artistic symbolism around
them," she said.
Istanbul has a venerable tradition of mosque architecture, dating
back centuries to when Ottoman sultans declared themselves caliph,
or spiritual leader of the Muslim world. Watch Zeynep Fadilioglu show
off her work and inspirations "
The shores of the Bosporus Strait are studded with 16th century
masterpieces such as the Suleymaniye Mosque, built by the Ottoman
Empire's most famous architect, Mimar Sinan, and ornate, neo-Baroque
jewels designed by the Armenian Balyan family in the 19th century. But
Istanbul's most senior Muslim cleric laments that mosque design
suffered a decline after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the
wake of World War I.
"In the last 70, 80 years, we have built mosques that are copies
of Ottoman architecture," said Mustafa Cagrici, the mufti of
Istanbul. "This wasn't a good development, because the copy can never
be as good as the original."
Fadillioglu and her team of artists are hoping to change that. Look
at photos of the mosque "
The Sakirin Mosque was commissioned by a wealthy Turkish Arab family
and built in one of Istanbul's oldest cemeteries.
The designers put a number of contemporary touches on the structure,
giving it plate glass walls etched with gold-leaf verses from the
Quran, framed by giant cast-iron grids.
Fact Box "If we think about this place as a home of God, we can also
say women will make this place much better."
Carpenter Metin Cekeroglu The mihrab -- the alcove that points
worshippers in the direction of Mecca -- is made of asymmetrical ovals,
similar to a design used by Fadillioglu to decorate a restaurant in
London. And the chandelier is a multi-layered series of metal and
plexiglass rings, carrying Quranic inscriptions and dripping with
scores of delicate glass teardrops.
"The glass chandelier brings the high dome down to the people,"
Fadillioglu explained. "So when they pray and kneel they don't feel
lost with the light and it shelters them."
Many of the artists here never worked on a mosque before.
"It's special that a woman's hand is involved in this," said one of
them, a male carpenter named Metin Cekeroglu. "If you think about it,
a home is made by woman. And if we think about this place as a home
of God, we can also say women will make this place much better."
Fadillioglu said one of her goals was to bring extra attention into
the design of the women's section of the mosque, an area that she
says is often neglected by architects. According to Islamic tradition,
worshippers are segregated by gender at mosques.
"I have seen mosques where women have been pushed to the worst part
of stairs, cramped area. Sort of as if (they are) unwanted in the
mosque," she said. "That is not what Islam is about. ... Women are
equal in Islam to men"
Five minutes' drive from the Sakirin Mosque stands the Mihrimah
Sultan Mosque, a 16th century structure built by Sultan Suleiman the
Magnificent in honor of his favorite daughter. Unfortunately, female
worshippers do not get to enjoy its stunning stained glass windows
the way the men do. They have to pray in a small women's section,
hidden behind a bank of chest-high shelves that store shoes.
At the Sakirin Mosque, Fadillioglu said, she gave women praying on
the balcony an unobstructed view of the dome, the ornate chandelier,
and the area on the floor where the imam will lead prayers.
"I would like to come here to pray," said Elif Demir, an 18-year old
art student with a funky, orange-dyed haircut who was working on the
chandelier. "This mosque is completely different because of the light
that's coming through the walls, through the glass."
Fadillioglu's role in the Sakirin Mosque is all the more surprising
because she comes from a jet-set side of Turkish society not normally
associated with Islam.
"It is unusual," she conceded, "because first of all not many modern
people have been commissioned to design a mosque."
She spoke in a recent interview at Ulus 29, the expensive Istanbul
hilltop restaurant and bar that is owned by her husband. Amid the
Ottoman- and Selcuk-inspired flourishes she has sprinkled around the
restaurant are echoes of designs seen at the Sakirin Mosque. A glass
chandelier made of hundreds of crystal tear drops hangs above the bar,
similar in style to the mosque's chandelier.
Fadillioglu said being a night club owner does not prevent her from
also being a Muslim.
"You might be surprised in Turkey to find some very modern-looking
people being very religious at the same time," she said.
Religion is a hot-button political issue in Turkey, a predominantly
Muslim country with a strict secular system of government.
For the past eight years a fierce power struggle has been under way
between an urban secular elite and a rising new class of religiously
conservative Turks from the Anatolian heartlands. Unlike the wives
of Turkey's Islamic-rooted president and prime minister, Fadillioglu
does not wear the Islamic headscarf that is often seen as the symbol
of this new class of Turks.
Fadillioglu said politics have polarized society.
"In my childhood ... you didn't differentiate between who was
religious," she explained. "Whoever wants to worship or visit this
mosque, its open, its ready for them."
On May 8, Turkey's prime minister attended an inauguration ceremony
for the Sakirin Mosque.
Afterward, in an interview with CNN, the mufti of Istanbul called it
the start of a new era of mosque design in Turkey.
"It is in Islamic tradition for women to commission mosques ... and now
we have women who are building mosques as well," Cagrici said. "God
willing, I hope the world will see more of these beautiful mosques,
touched by women's hands."