We loved traveling because being in nature made us feel relaxed and happy. Moreover, visiting different places inside Iran allowed us to know more about the different cultures. Traveling is really one of our favorite activities.

Three years ago, we met American and French cyclists in Iran, and we liked the idea of cycling the world so much. So, we started exercising by cycling around Iran. We had enough patience to ride our bicycles for more than 2000 km inside Iran because we were used to mountain-climbing, which was definitely more difficult.

During the years preceding our trip, we took a course to be international eco-tour guides. The course made us more open-minded, and allowed us to think more about nature and the importance of protecting it.

We learned about the harmful effects of war on humans and nature. We felt like "We must find a solution!" It was a good idea to do a world tour to convey a message of peace and environment conservation by cycling and planting peace trees in different parts of the world.

Our parents were the last people to know about our adventure. We thought if we had told them earlier, they would have convinced us to change our minds. But, we were mistaken.

At the beginning, they could not believe it, but later on they realized that we were serious. Despite being worried about us, our parents supported us, and they felt proud of us.

The last sentence my mother told me was: "Nasim, go and leave me for two years. I don't want to see you till the end of your trip!"

Our friends were so happy. They have always called us the "happy family". We planted the first peace tree with all of our friends in Tehran.

I met Jafar during our travels, and we are used to going on cheap trips; we do not stay in hotels – we use tents and sleeping bags and cook our own food instead.

One of the most interesting things that happened before the beginning of our trip was that after being interviewed by the BBC in Tehran, we came back home from a goodbye party to find more than 300 emails from all over the world in our inbox.

People from different countries invited us to their houses, and expressed their enthusiasm about helping us to complete our trip. At the beginning, we were only two, but, through moral and emotional togetherness, we are now thousands of people from different parts of the world. That is more important for us than financial sponsoring.

We have already visited Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada. We are now in the United States. Our next destinations are Japan, Korea, China, India, and Pakistan.

Our plan is to ride our bicycles for around 20,000 km through the North hemisphere, conveying a message of peace to the countries that are more likely to get involved in war.

When we see each other face to face, we realize how similar we are. We are all humans. We all love family, life and peace.

Using bicycles instead of other means of transportation allows us to attract people's attention due to the difficulties involved in touring the world on bicycles. Thus, the type of tour we have undertaken gives us better chances to speak to people and covey our message.

We are touring the world on our bicycles to show people that Iranians are not terrorists. They are not part of the “axis of evil”. We are inviting everybody to come to our country to know the truth.

We go to kindergartens, primary schools, high schools, and universities to talk to students. We do our best to let them know more about other countries and cultures. We also attempt to give answers to a lot of their questions about Iran.

We join people in vigils and peace rallies, and we try to meet people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds to tell them that, as Iranian Muslims, we respect all religions.

The beauty of this tour was more catchy for people than Nasim’s hijab. Some people were curious to know about my hijab and the women’s dress code in Iran.

We tried to explain to them the idea behind wearing hijab. Nasim represents women in Iran with all their cultural and religious particularity. You can find different people with different ideas in each country, but what is really important for having peace is respecting people who embrace other beliefs.

This trip is full of touching situations, but the one that made us so sad was visiting the world trade center in New York City.

Explaining our feelings is so hard. We cannot imagine how the poor people who were inside tried to survive but they could not. They were not soldiers; rather, they were ordinary people doing their work. They died in a terrible event, leaving their families and loved ones behind with so many unanswered questions.

We have undertaken a very difficult trip for fact-finding, peace, and environment. Leaving our families, jobs, and country for two years shows how important world peace and environment conservation are. We are enjoying this experience because though we are losing certain things, we know that we will be gaining others that are more important in the future. We want our kids to be proud of being Iranian.