Shakirin Mosque
The mosque’s architect was Husrev Tayla, known for his work on Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara. The mosque interior designer is Zeynep Fadillioglu, a great-niece of Semiha Shakir, and the first female interior designer of a mosque. Decorative motifs of the mosque are derived from Seljukian art. 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.
The waterdrop-shaped glass globes “reflecting a prayer that Allah’s light should fall on worshipers like rain,” and the women’s section is designed especially to allow female worshipers to have a clear view of the chandelier. 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.
Shakirin Mosque on Google Maps
