Iran actor promotes environmental rights

Famous Iranian actor Reza Kianian has campaigned for social and environmental rights with a collective bike ride in Tehran.

Cyclists rode alongside Kianian as part of a collective bike ride in the Iranian capital city of Tehran recently to promote the environmental cause of clean air.

He offers that people should not take a passive role in society and added that authorities can be convinced to follow them by their active role.

“I am a member of society and I suppose that no positive change will occur until we start a reform within ourselves,” said Kianian, who is compared in his homeland with the legendary American actor Robert De Niro.

Kianian has been an active member of many campaigns for social rights and the environment from the beginning of his career.

During a speech with the Tehran mayor in 2012, Kianian highlighted the deleterious effects of air pollution, which has plagued the city for a while.

In 2015, he signed a petition in collaboration with the Tehran Peace Museum to ask the United Nations to investigate the Mina disaster, during which 2,000 hajj pilgrims were crushed in a stampede during the pilgrimage.

He also joined a number of environmental activists in 2016 for the campaign ‘I Am Lake Urmia’, in an effort to draw the world’s attention to Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran in an effort to save and restore it from environmental ruin.

AI/MMF