On Saturday, Tehran opened the Saint Virgin Mary metro station on Line 6, a 32-metre-deep stop between Haft-e Tir and Vali-Asr squares. Commuters enter beneath vaulted ceilings styled after church architecture and pass a 2.5-metre statue of Mary flanked by seven bas-reliefs and Christian-themed murals set amid Persian floral motifs.
Officials presented the station called "Maryam-e Moqaddas" as a gesture toward Iran’s religious minorities, especially the nearby Armenian Christian community whose Saint Sarkis Cathedral stands a short walk away. The site was also intended to relieve traffic and improve access to Armenian cultural landmarks.
One panel shows Mary with closed eyes and a dove above her head, an image designers described as a shared sacred figure. “This bird is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and the olive tree symbolizes peace and friendship,” said sculptor Tina Tarigh Meher, according to France 24.
“This station evokes the holy woman who awakened the world with her purity and proves coexistence among the holy religions in Tehran,” said Mayor Ali Reza Zakani, according to France 24. Project manager Abdolmotahhar Mohammadkhani detailed the civil works—102,000 cubic metres of earth removed, 27,000 cubic metres of concrete poured, and about 6,000 square metres of stone masonry installed.
Iran officially recognised Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism and reserved each a parliamentary seat, yet Christians form only a small share of the largely Muslim population. Estimates of the ethnic-Armenian community range from 130,000 to 300,000.
Mary appears 34 times in the Qur’an, lends her name to Surah 19, and is counted among the four women considered perfect in Islamic tradition, while Jesus is frequently addressed as “the son of Mary.”
Amnesty International, cited by El Faro de Vigo, warned that minorities still faced discrimination in employment and worship and that raids on house churches continued. Analysts told Newsweek that symbolic gestures could widen the gap between imagery and daily life unless minorities actually felt safer.
The station cost about US $11 million and joined a metro network that began operating in 2001 and now includes roughly 160 stations. A mural of Ayatollah Khomeini at the entrance reminds riders of the Islamic Republic’s ideological roots.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.