Rira: The Call of Iran’s Environmental Prisoners

You can view this event online through live streaming or join us in person at the Edinburgh venue. Please order tickets below.

Please join us for a very special evening of discussions on Iran’s wild life, its rare species and recalling the instrumental work of its environmental scientists including Sepideh Kashani, Houman Jokar, Niloufar Bayani, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Taher Ghadirian, Sam Rajabi, and Morad Tahbaz, who dedicated their life to safeguarding the vulnerable and endangered wildlife and ecosystems of Iran and have been imprisoned since January 2018.

The evening will feature a stellar line up of distinguished international Environmental scientists, who will introduce and share their knowledge on the richness of Iran’s wildlife and stories and experiences of working with Iran’s environmental scientist prisoners. They will reflect on Iran’s unique wildlife and climatic challenges, as well as raising awareness for the world environment community to connect and defend advocators of nature as an integral aspect of the international work required to confront the climate emergency. The event will be live streamed as a way to invite the international community to participate and hear this tribute to Iran’s endangered wildlife and its imprisoned scientists.

We will also share a selection of rarely seen photos taken by the Iranian environmentalists of the wildlife, landscapes and regions they were conserving and working on before their arrest including the Asiatic cheetah, which is the most important endangered cat specie in the world. There will be live music by Iranian saxophonist, Omid Amiri, and a special opening message by political prisoner and curator Aras Amiri and co-Executive Director of Greenpeace UK, Will McCallum.

We would like to encourage those who care for nature, climate justice, and freedom, both the environment community and the public alike, to join us in our endeavour. Their participation and support of Rira will contribute greatly to raising awareness about Iran’s environmentalist prisoners, and raising new questions among the climate justice community of the UK.

Speakers include:

• Chair: Dr Patricia Macdonald BSc FRSE FSA(Scot) FRSA Hon FRSGS is an environmental artist-photographer and an academic and researcher in cultural landscape studies.
• Dr Urs Breintenmoser carnivore ecologist and former senior scientist at the University of Bern.
• Dr Christine Breitenmoser-Würsten wildlife biologist and co-founder of Swiss-based KORA (Carnivore Ecology and Wildlife Management).
• Prof Sarah Durant Professor at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London and head of the Africa Range-wide Cheetah Conservation Initiative.
• Leili Khalatbari post-doc researcher at CIBIO-InBIO, University of Porto, Portugal working at BIODESERTS (Biodiversity of Deserts and Arid Regions).
• Dr Andrew Kitchener Principal Curator of Vertebrates and specialises in research on mammals, especially carnivorans at National Museum of Scotland.
• Dr Kaveh Madani is a globally recognised environmental scientist, educator, and activist, working on complex human-natural systems at the interface of science, policy, and society.
• Will McCallum co-Executive Director of Greenpeace UK.
• Dr Stephane Ostrowski Senior Technical Advisor of Temperate Asia Region & Associate Director of Wildlife Health Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, New York.
• Dr Chris Walzer Executive Director of Health at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

With special thanks to the generous sponsorship and support by Greenpeace and the University of Edinburgh, including the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH). We extend our gratitude and appreciation to Patricia Erskine, Katayoon Forouhesh, and the esteemed scientists, curators, researchers and artists who have pledged their time and support to this event.

When:

5.30-7.45pm BST, Monday 5th June

Where:

Online and at Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Newington, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB.

Tickets:

Tickets are free but the event has a first come first served policy.

In Person Tickets

Online Tickets