In his latest comments made before a collective bike ride organized in Tehran on Friday to promote clean air, he said, “We must begin social reform with ourselves.”
“I am a member of society and I suppose that no positive change will occur until we start a reform within ourselves,” noted Kianian who is the author of “These Nice People”, a book that features his diaries on his routine visits with ordinary people.
He said that people should not take a passive role in society and added that people can convince the authorities to follow them by their active role.
He has always been an active member of most campaigns for social rights and the environment.
In 2012, during the closing ceremony of the 4th Tehran Satire Festival that was attended by former Tehran mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, Kianian criticized the air pollution in the city.
“Right now, I feel like all my insides have come up to my throat,” Kianian said.
“I want to tell Mr. Qalibaf… that there are many ways to kill. One way is that we make the children work so hard that it causes them to die. Another way is that we make the air be so polluted that it causes everyone to die!” he joked and added, “Who is responsible for the pollution?”
In 2015, he was one of the people signed a petition in collaboration with the Tehran Peace Museum to ask the United Nations to investigate the Mina disaster, during which 2000 hajj pilgrims were crushed in a stampede in Mina during the hajj pilgrimage.
In September 2016, he joined a number of environmental activists who launched the campaign “I Am Lake Urmia” to draw the world’s attention to Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran in an effort to save and restore it from environmental ruin.
Source: Tehran Times