Niloufar Bayani is an Iranian researcher, conservationist, and scholar. She graduated from McGill University in Canada in 2009, with a BSc in Biology, and is an alum of Columbia University, where she has an MA in Conservation Biology. She worked as an advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme from 2012 - 2017, before returning to Iran to join the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. She worked with this non-profit organization in Iran on a number of projects, specifically focusing her work on the conservation of the Asiatic cheetah, setting up a number of camera traps to monitor each individual's movement.

In 2018, she was arrested by the Iranian government under charges of espionage. In November of 2019 she was convicted and sentenced to ten years in Evin prison in Tehran, Iran under accusations of "contacts with the U.S. enemy state" and "gaining illegitimate income" with no lawyer, and despite her testimony otherwise. For eight months she was detained, separated, and tortured in a number of ways in solitary confinement, with constant threats of sexual violence. The unlawful mistreatment of Bayani, an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of U.S. -- Iran relations is immense. 

We are partnering with Scholars at Risk (SAR) to bring awareness to this unacceptable treatment. Signing this petition would help Bayani's case, as well as the multiple others wrongfully imprisoned by Iran, get the recognition they deserve by the United States government. Bayani must be freed. #MakeNoiseforNiloufar #FreeNiloufar #AnyHopeForNature