The Total Number of Iranian Member Cities Exceeds 800

January 2016 [Iranian member cities]

As of January 1, 2016, the number of Iranian member cities reached 812, an increase of 300 cities since January 1, 2015. In 2014 and 2015, more than 700 new members joined, which represents the largest single-country increase in two years among all the countries.

This historical record was achieved by the team at the office for Iranian members of Mayors for Peace, which is based at the Tehran Peace Museum. They achieved this by consistently communicating with all the mayors in Iran and asking them to join our organization. This movement was initiated by Dr. Shahriar Khateri, 2020 Vision Campaigner and one of the Tehran Peace Museum’s founders, in June 2013. Their efforts rapidly raised the total number of Iranian members from 27 as of June 2013 to 127 by February 2014. Even after Dr. Khateri left Tehran in July 2014, the office has continued regularly recruiting and has sent 20 to 40 completed membership applications to Hiroshima every month. In 2014 as a whole, 416 cities newly joined Mayors for Peace from Iran and the Iranian membership reached 512 in January 1, 2015; this momentum continued in 2015 with 300 new members. Iran is now home to the second largest number of member cities of Mayors for Peace in the world. Currently, the Mayors for Peace team at the Tehran Peace Museum is led by Mr. Mohammad Rezaei, a survivor of a chemical weapons attack.

Many Iranian cities were attacked by chemical weapons in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War, and approximately 13,000 people including the young and old died. Now, more than 60,000 chemical weapons victims still suffer from long term health effects sustained from the chemical weapons attacks. A member city, Sardasht, which was attacked by mustard gas in June 1987, has been called “the Second Hiroshima”.

Mr. Rezaei remarked on this membership achievement as follows:
“I was injured when I was defending my country 30 years ago by chemical weapons. I know what it means to be a victim of weapons of mass destruction and that’s why I try to raise awareness about the consequences of the use of chemical and nuclear weapons. Mayors for Peace has a great potential to expand universal knowledge on the necessity of abolition of weapons of mass destruction all around the world. We, in the Tehran Peace Museum, are doing our best to benefit from this network and promote a culture of peace in Iranian member cities. Hopefully in our next steps, we can build strong bridges between Iranian cities and cities around the world and work together towards our common goal.”

>Mayors for Peace page at the Tehran Peace Museum

>Oral history interview with Mr. Mohammad Rezaei

Mr. Rezaei (left) receiving a Mayors for Peace Membership Certificate for a new Iranian member city from Mayor Matsui of Hiroshima, President of Mayors for Peace (right), in Hiroshima in August 2015
(Photo: courtesy of the City of Hiroshima)