In Tehran, “civil resistance” against the plan to erect a mosque in a park

In Tehran, the project to build a mosque in Gheytarieh Park, one of the oldest in the Iranian capital and also one of the most popular with the city’s youth, has been crystallizing tensions for almost two months.

This project “highlights divisions” within an Iranian society “increasingly polarized” between hardliners and “Ordinary Iranians”, who feel a certain “distrust of authorities”, relates an Iranian journalist in the Financial Times.

Moreover, some local press headlines not only highlight that Tehran suffers from a lack of green spaces, but also that the mosques were already empty.

Irreparable consequences

When the municipality’s project, led by a conservative team, was revealed at the end of March, political activists, environmentalists and local residents gathered to form a human chain around the park.

Very quickly, the authorities reacted by imposing a “heavy presence of security forces” in the perimeter “with police cars and motorcycles”, reports the media hostile to the regime Iran International.

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