This letter was sent out to companies and organizations in the construction industry. I’ve removed the file number and signatures on it.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran
Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning
Undersecretary of Architecture and Urban Planning
In the name of the Almighty
To the Engineering Consultants Society of Iran
With respect, as you are aware, creating agreeable architectural spaces and increasing their efficiency and utilization, requires attention and contemplation over certain subtle matters, which unfortunately in some cases, due to the designers’ being busy and their attention diverted towards the various codes and procedures of implementation, are being forgotten. These oversights sometimes create numerous problems in the utilization of buildings. For example implementation of the direction of the “Ghebleh” for certain indoor actions is an essential matter, although in some cases it has been observed that this important feature is neglected by designers and executives which leads to further complications. Consequently, we ask that you notify all designers and executives to indicate the direction of the “Ghebleh” on all drawings and plans henceforth, and to ensure execution of implementation requirements in this matter. In addition, we inform you that in order to facilitate finding the direction of the “Ghebleh”, its position for all 978 cities in the country has been determined and posted on the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning’s “www.mosques.ir” website.
Amir Farjami
Undersecretary to the Minister
Head of the High Council of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning”
Allow me to clarify a few things and give a bit of background information. According to Islamic Sharia in Iran, it is forbidden to urinate and defecate while facing the house of God or having one’s back to it. Don’t ask me why, he works in mysterious ways. That’s what “certain indoor actions” means in the letter: Going to the restroom, doing one of the numbers, dropping the kids off, clearing the traffic jam. Ghebleh has come to mean God’s house – or Kaaba – in Farsi. Others call it Qiblah or Kiblah and it is essentially the direction to Mecca (you can find it on Wikipedia). In the restroom, we need to be positioned so that a “side” of the body is towards the Ghebleh and building designers are required to place their toilets accordingly (you won’t find that on Wikipedia). If you are in Tehran, toilets must face either East or West as Mecca is mostly to the South. Well it’s really in the Southwest, but since we build buildings facing North-South that little bit of westward positioning can be ignored. Thank God for allowing that, otherwise we would have to build diagonally.
So hopefully this letter is a bit clearer now. They’ve noticed that our designers are slipping and some buildings are not according to “code”, so they’re trying to get that fixed.
Tags: building, construction, islam, ministry, sharia, toilet