Niloufar Bayani


Niloufar Bayani is an Iranian wildlife activist and researcher. She was convicted in 2019 of espionage by Iranian authorities in a closed-door trial in Iran, and received a 10-year prison sentence.

Education and career

Bayani graduated from McGill University in Canada with a BSc in Biology in 2009 and holds an MA in Conservation Biology from Columbia University. She subsequently worked as a consultant and project adviser to United Nations Environment Programme between 2012 and 2017.
After coming back to Iran, she joined the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, an Iranian environmental organization that was co-founded by Kavous Seyed-Emami and some other Iranian environmentalists. PWHF is a not-for-profit organization supervised by a board of trustees and an executive board whose members are well versed in conservation strategies and natural resource management. In Iran, she worked on the wildlife projects, setting camera traps in seven provinces to monitor the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah

Arrest and imprisonment

Bayani was arrested in January 2018 by Iranian authorities on charges of espionage.
According to a BBC report, Bayani was separated and detained incommunicado for eight months and her interrogators tortured and intimidated her with sexual assault.
In 2019, Bayani wrote an open letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, describing her harsh treatment by her interrogators. On February 18, 2020, BBC Persia published letters that Dr. Bayani wrote from Evin Prison, in which she detailed the tortures she has to undergo. Bayani said that her interrogators showed her a photo of Kavous Seyed-Emami.
She was sentenced in 2020 without a lawyer and despite her claims.

International pressure

On March 14, 2019 the European Parliament adopted a resolution in which it condemned the Iranian violations to human rights, freedom of expression, fair trial, freedom of the press, freedom of thought and freedom of religion. In particular, the document makes reference to the case of Dr. Bayani and the other environmentalists in point 14; by urging the Iranian authorities to release all the individuals unfairly detained in their prisons for allegedly commission of crimes.
The United Nation's Human Rights Council, on January 28, 2020, published a Report on the situation of human rights in Iran, which expresses the concern of the Special Rapporteur regarding condition of respect of the fundamental human rights. One paragraph of the document relates to the case of the eight detained environmentalists, among which there is Niloufar Bayani. She is accused of “collaborating with the United States enemy state" and has also been condemned to refund the income perceived as a consultant and project adviser to United Nations Environment Programme between 2012 and 2017. The Rapporteur invited the Iranian authorities to ensure the respect of the work pursued by the scientific community for the benefit of the Iranian country.
Scholars at Risk is an international network of institutions and individuals that promotes academic freedom and protect scholars from academic freedom threats. SAR has been actively supporting Dr. Bayani, for example, by sending letters to public authorities in Iran, running advocacy seminars in universities, and conducting online activities via social networks.

Iranian reactions

Following Niloufar Bayani's revelation of the sexual and psychological harassment of the interrogators, the Tehran Prosecutor's Office denied the allegations, claiming that all the interrogation procedures had been videotaped, and linked the issue to accusations and planned actions on the eve of the election. It claimed that the judiciary was sensitive to the dignity of defendants, convicts, and prisoners.
The revelation of the behavior of the intelligence interrogators to Niloufar Bayani was widely reported on social media. The Iranian reformist political activist Mustafa Tajzadeh wrote a statement on Twitter and called for the truth on Bayani's case, and for the punishment of the perpetrators of violence.