I bear witness!

Nilofar Bayani
Evin prison

I am an environmental defender who has been imprisoned in Tehran's Evin prison for the past five and a half years and four and a half more years are waiting for me. I bear witness to the tragic death of Kavos, who was the head of a wildlife conservation NGO where I worked. I bear witness to the mental torture, beating and sexual harassment of seven other colleagues who have been unjustly convicted: Tahir Qadirian, Homan Jokar, Sepideh Kashani, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Abdolreza Kohpayeh, Sam Rajabi and Murad Tahbaz. I also bear witness to my own similar sufferings.

I can also testify to the cruel and inhumane treatment of our local volunteers from the impoverished villages of southern Iran: Hassan Ragh, Art Zare and Mohammad Saleh Ahmad. In addition, I witnessed the mistreatment of wildlife photographers and documentarians Alireza Farhadzadeh and Morteza Arianjad, who were kept in solitary confinement at the same time as me and my colleagues.

Four of us lived with the possibility of execution in the two years between the arrest and the sentencing. No evidence was presented against us. When our fake court case was used to criminalize the small but growing environmental movement in Iran's civil society and presented it as a threat to national security, they did not feel obligated to provide any justification. At least 40 other temporary arrests were made in connection with our court case. This was done to silence and deter supporters and undermine the legitimacy of environmental protection.

In 2018 alone, at least 63 environmental activists have been arrested in Iran. For many experts, the constant threats have left no option but to leave the country. Dr. Kaveh Madani is the best-known example. He had left his prestigious job at Imperial College London for a government job at the Ministry of the Environment. But his efforts to help Iran's environment did not last long and he had to leave the country only a few months later. / Kalameh