Tehran hosting Imam Reza (AS) expo

Tehran has been hosting photo exhibition of the shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Imam of the Shia.

Opened on Tuesday in Mehrsun Complex, the exhibition has been organized to celebrate the birth anniversary of Imam Reza (AS), which falls on June 11 this year.

Titled ‘Affection for the Eight’, the expo is displaying 75 photos from pilgrims visiting the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) and scenes from the beauty of the religious site.

The exhibition is being organized with contributions from the Astan Qods Razavi, the organizational custodian of the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad.

“Everybody doesn’t have the chance to go on pilgrimage to Mashhad … by this exhibit, we intend to create the spiritual atmosphere of pilgrimage for the visitors of the exhibition,” an Astan Qods Razavi official, said at the opening ceremony.

“The organizers and the photographers participating in this exhibition all feel affection for Imam Reza (AS), and I was impressed by their photos,” he added.

Although the call for organizing the exhibition was published only in late May, yet the collection shows that the photographers have made great efforts to capture the photos.

The event presented some awards to Amir-Ali Javadian, Hamid Azizi, Hamid-Reza Habibi, Hamed Khalili, Mostafa Yousefi and Hadi Dehqanpour.

The birthday of the eighth Imam of the Shia is celebrated by a wide variety of cultural programs in different Iranian provinces during the Imam Reza (AS) International Festival.

The ten-day festival opens every year with the birthday celebration of Hazrat Fatemeh Masoumeh (SA), the sister of the Imam Reza (AS), at her holy shrine in Qom and ends with honoring a number of top artists on his birthday in Mashhad.

MG/MG