Humayro Bakhtiyar (29) first made a name for herself in her home country as a parliamentary reporter for Radio Imruz and since 2014 with her reporting on political and human rights issues for the Asia Plus media group. Her reports on a working group for the abolition of the death penalty and its work on human rights violations by the Tajik regime have attracted particular attention.

She received awards from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in 2012, 2013 and 2015 for her research on radicalism and extremism. These and other publications brought Humayro Bakhtiyar into the sights of the Tajik secret service.