Qom is a holy city for Shi’a Islam. This is an important centre for Shiite scholars to come here to study in its madrasehs (religious schools). People in the town are strictly religious so tourists should respect local traditions.

This holy city is also the place for the Fatemeh Masoumeh Shrine. Fetemah died here in the 9th century. She was the sister of Imam Reza, the eighth out of the 12 imams who decended from Prophet Mohammed. She was named Masoumeh by Imam Reza which means to sinless.

I visited here on my way to Kashan. I was impressed by how pretty the shrine area was. It was raining on my way to Qom and I was glad that the sun came out when i landed. You could see a beautiful rainbow photo with on the recently built section in the complex.

Being non Islam tourist, I was only able to visit certain part of the shrine. I was not allowed to enter the most sacred part of the shrine. In addition, any tourists coming will need to be accompanied by a guide assigned by the shrine association to walk you around. However, don’t take me wrong, I enjoyed a lot with the companion since the guide not only explained you about the shrine here , but also open to discuss lots of topics with you.

To enter the inner part of the shrine, I needed to first get a tourist chador to cover well myself. And then i had to pass through the security checkpoint (men and women were separated ). This security point was far more strict than other shrines I visited They would search your bags. If there were any liquids, you would be asked to drink a small sip in front of the security lady to assure no issue with it. And the security lady would also touch through your body to assure you were not having any forbidden items. Lastly, they would assure you wore properly the tourist chador. (Information* : Tourist chador is a bit different than local chador. There was a worry that tourists may not be able to handle local chador well if you are not used to while no one want to risk that your chador fall down inside the venue. Therefore, the tourist chador is tailor made to have sleeves (instead of just a big cloth to wrap and hold by yourself), having a head band to tie the chador well on your forehead as well as having a zipper in front to assure its always closed. I personally like this as very convenient for me to handle and I could become more carefree from the chador during my visit. After security check, i finally arrived the inner part of the shrine and met my assigned guide at the exist of the security checking point booth. When i looked up the place, it’s extraordinarily beautiful !

Assigned guide : The guide assigned to me was a scholar in this shrine. He is a highly educated person with his PHD in physics before becoming a religious scholar . Originally i was a bit worried if he would not be easy to talk with. But very quickly, i realised he was an open minded scholar. When i said open minded, indeed he was a very loyal islam. But he was also open for me to ask any questions while patiently shared his thoughts after. He did also share with me one of his study before allowed him to study through various religion’s books including koran , bible, etc for him to openly study humanity. That’s a part I didn’t imagine before. And i was told in fact most mullahs are generally also quite open for debate and discussion.

Overall, there were lot of beautiful architectures and art work here I appreciated a lot. Due to many visitors (be it local or tourists), I only managed to take some photo shots. But the place was really peaceful and nice.