Hell exhibition draws fire from Iranians, faithful and faithless alike

An exhibition by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards meant to offer a visceral experience of the afterlife—particularly the torments of hell—has instead provoked widespread ridicule and criticism.

Inaptly titled Heaven Time, the display opened this week at a Revolutionary Guards’ base in Fouman in Iran’s lush northern Gilan Province.

Organizers claimed the project had the approval of prominent religious figures.

Fire, smoke, fake paradise

Photos and videos circulating on social media show visitors walking across a suspended bridge surrounded by real gas flames—meant to simulate the searing heat of hell.

Actors in grotesque costumes moan and writhe amid the fire and smoke, while loudspeakers blast Quranic verses describing punishments for sin and disbelief.

The display includes a dramatization of grave questioning by Nakir and Munkar—two angels in Islamic theology believed to interrogate the dead.

A makeshift depiction of paradise has drawn even sharper criticism for lacking the beauty or design of an ordinary public park.

The nearly barren pavilion features a patchy lawn, a narrow pond meant to represent paradise’s milk and honey streams, and a few scattered potted plants—leaving many visitors unimpressed by its aesthetics or spiritual feel.

Mocked by the masses

Criticism has poured in from across the political and religious spectrum—from ordinary Iranians to journalists, intellectuals, and conservative figures.

“You were supposed to build a paradise (in Iran), but created a hell instead and inaugurated it with a smile!” Iranian journalist Azadeh Mokhtari posted on X.

Outspoken wrestling Olympic champion Rasoul Khadem pilloried the whole idea.

“What hell is greater than a crowd of ungrateful and godless people with full stomachs and sick hearts urging the poor and hungry to be patient, content, self-restrained, pure-hearted, and honest?” he posted on Instagram.

Images of the exhibition went viral with comments that were almost unanimously negative, some with sharp humor underscoring the society's shift away from religion.

“There wasn’t a single unveiled woman in the hell that you built at so much cost. All these years you said unveiled women would go to hell, but none is to be seen there now that you have built a display of hell,” a user calling himself Ali’s Dad posted on X.

Backlash from the faithful

Even among the devout, the display was seen as offensive—more a parody of faith than a defense of it.

“It seems that superficial, rigid, and sanctimonious zealots have so dominated all spheres with their shallow and frozen understanding of religion that no scholar dares to oppose them!” prominent journalist and political activist Ahmad Zeydabadi posted on his Telegram channel.

The exhibition, he lamented, was a “mockery of religion”, and an “affront to Islam and the Quran.”

Conservative politician Abdolreza Davari warned that the display could erode, rather than reinforce, religious belief.

“The young Muslim will ask himself: ‘Is this the paradise that God has promised to those who worship Him their entire life and stay away from sin?" he posted on X. "For God’s sake, stop meddling with people’s religion and faith!”