Last year I wrote about my friend Niloufar Bayani, who is currently unjustly imprisoned in Iran. At that time her trial had ended and we were awaiting the judge’s ruling. Shortly thereafter she was sentenced to ten years in prison, the harshest sentence amongst the six people from her NGO who received sentences that day. At the time this was described to me as some sort of small victory because there was the real possibility that Nilou could have been sentenced to death. I just wanted to throw up.
In February of this year, the Iranian court of appeals upheld the verdict. After that, letters written by Nilou were smuggled out of the prison. The details that I’ve heard about from the letters (I haven’t seen the text of the letters themselves) are horrifying. The public reports include details of sexual, physical, and psychological torture. Privately, I’ve been told a few even more terrifying details: Nilou being kept in a room with her boss’s corpse, or that she was locked in a room with seven armed men as they “played out their sexual fantasies”. Whatever that means, exactly, I don’t think I could stand to know.
Despite all this, there is also new evidence of Nilou’s spirit and strength: she stood up in court and described her torture to the judge, and she wrote letters to Iranian leaders detailing her torture. Apparently the Iranian public was outraged when it learned of Nilou’s treatment; it’s viewed as one of the most egregious examples of the treatment of a prisoner in Iran in recent memory. I wonder if that’s just because Nilou had the courage to reveal what was done to her. Maybe this is what is happening every day in Iranian prisons?
Nilou’s birthday came and went recently. During undergrad, Nilou’s birthday came right after the end of exams. It was a bittersweet time of celebration as we said goodbye to friends for the summer. However, we were always comforted by the fact we’d be reunited when university started up again in September. Now, in today’s world, Nilou has spent three birthdays in prison, under unimaginable conditions. Not in my worst nightmares could I have imagined such a future for her. I still hold out hope that there’s some rationality left in the world, and Nilou will again be able to celebrate her birthday as the start of summer freedom.
When Iran was hit early and hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, there were reports they were releasing prisoners. I held out hope that Nilou would be among those released, but I’ve been told she is still in jail. However, one of her co-workers was released. It’s a start.
