Women's rights in the Islamic world are grim; even in Turkey, which has a secular government, feminism is still a foreign concept. But Zeynep Fadillioglu has quietly pulled off a coup: She's the first woman in Turkey to design a mosque. An interior designer known for jet setting ways, she nonetheless won a commission to redesign the religious structure in Istanbul. She even recruited women to help in the construction. Begun last year, the project was just recently completed. It's a fairly impressive building, subtly blending modern techniques and materials into what might be the world's most conservative design vernacular. Check it out:

The quibla wall, which faces Mecca. The archway you see is the mihrab--an essential feature of a mosque's quibla wall. To the right is the minbar--the pulpit for the Imam: 

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The view from the balcony. Women and men are separated in mosques; men worship on the main floor. The spaces occupied by women are frequently cramped, but Fadillioglu made a point of giving women a space equal to the main floor, in size and beauty:  

You can read more about the process behind the mosque here. 

[Via Archinect and Radikal]

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