Green Spaces and the Presidential Race

Last week the Environment Committee of the Tehran City Council had two major visits . On Saturday we visited Tehran's waste management center in the southern district of Kahrizak. More than 7000 tons of waste is generated daily in Tehran. In recent years, with the establishment of the Environment Committee we have succeeded to promote sound and efficient waste management programs. Currently ,as we witnessed more than 2000 tons of organic waste is composted and more than 800 tons is recylced. On Wednesday we witnessed some of the activities underway to enhance green areas in Tehran. There are 1578 parks of different sizes in Tehran. Currently there is more than 12 square meters of green area per capita, but we believe it is not enough and not distributed evenly. We visited one of the two women's parks in Tehran. This park located in the south of the city is very large, over 170 hectares with all modern facilities, football, volleyball, tennis and badminton courts. Indoor body building and outdoor activities of all kinds were available but most important is that since only women are allowed in the park, they can take off their covering and stroll in the park area without hijab. This is very attractive for women and particularly the young .They enjoy the atmosphere and the opportunity to walk around without the usual covering . There will be at least four such parks in Tehran by the end of this year.
After Engineer Mousavi the former Prime Minister of Iran entered the race for the next Presidential elections , Khatami is reconsidering his decision to run . Khatami's popularity runs high and all polls show him between 20 to 30% ahead of other candidates . He however does not believe that numerous reformist candidates could win the race and is concerned about rivalry among the reformist camp. Khatami believes that ethics should prevail and that is the essence of any political game. He has shown he has no political ambitions and that he will not sacrifice his ethical principles for the sake of power. That's the man that we have known all these years.