Nelufar Hedayat

Nelufar Hedayat
Hedayat at Doha Debates
Born 1 January 1988
Kabul, Afghanistan
Nationality British
Alma mater University of Westminster
Occupation(s) Journalist, correspondent, presenter
Years active 2010–present

Nelufar Hedayat (born 1 January 1988) is a British journalist and presenter who hosts the podcast Course Correction and is the correspondent for Doha Debates. She has worked in television across the BBC, as well as on Channel 4, Netflix, Fusion and The Guardian newspaper, covering breaking news, live events and in-depth investigations in some of the world's most dangerous places. Her work often focuses on cultural upheaval experienced by women, children, and families during a conflict, especially in her native Afghanistan.

Background

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1988, Hedayat came to the United Kingdom from her war-torn homeland. Her mother, who was a civil engineer, took a job cleaning hotel rooms, and her father, a professor of mathematics, worked as a carpet salesman. Hedayat has said: "Growing up in North London, identity was never really a big issue. I always felt I was free to be who I wanted to be, surrounded by a world where difference and eccentricity were the norm." She graduated from the University of Westminster with a BA Honours degree in English Literature.

Career

Hedayat joined BBC Three in 2009 and left in 2011 for BBC Newsround. In 2014 she left the BBC and worked as a general reporter for Channel 4 News. In 2015–16, she worked on the documentary series The Traffickers for Lightbox Media. She joined the Fusion Media investigative team in late 2016 as a full-time Fusion Host until 2018 Fusion host.

In 2017 she was named Manchester Metropolitan University and Routes into Languages North West Journalist of the Year.

Women, Weddings, War and Me

The 2010 television documentary Women, Weddings, War and Me, directed by Ruhi Hamid, follows Hedayat as she returns to her homeland for the first time since leaving some 15 years earlier. She returned to Afghanistan to discover how the lives of women in Afghanistan had changed with the fall of the Taliban. She later said "I met with women who had been so defeated by a patriarchal society, they thought of themselves as second-class citizens. I found a world of extreme violence against them, where they were traded like animals – not treated as human beings. Girls were in prison for trying to escape abusive marriages. I cried with these women, tried to understand them and to comfort them. ...I came back to the UK knowing that I had changed. I was humbled by my experience, but there was an ever stronger feeling of thankfulness to my mother, who had saved me from such suffering."

The documentary was shown on BBC Three from 2 March 2010. It also aired in Australia on ABC on 17 May 2010 and it has received largely positive reviews, while scoring the highest audience approval rating for a documentary on any channel ever reported. The documentary has gone on to win the Broadcast Digital Award for Best Current Affairs' Programme.

Music, Money and Hip Hop Honeys

In this BBC Three documentary aired in 2011, Hedayat explores the world of hip-hop music video girls. She meets young women in the UK seeking careers as hip-hop models both in the UK and the US, but falling victim to financial and sexual exploitation.

Vietnam's Dog Snatchers

In her 2014 début for Channel 4's Unreported World series, Hedayat went to uncover the secret world of the dog meat trade in Vietnam. Millions of dogs are killed every year to satisfy the demand for the meat. Often pets are stolen from homes because the demand is so high and police officers can do little but fine the thieves. Hedayat finds trucks crammed full of hundreds of dogs hungry and vomiting after being force-fed rice on the way to Hanoi's dog meat only restaurants and meets the village that murdered the thieves plaguing them. Hedayat worked on the film with director Daniel Bogado.

The Traffickers

In her first eight-part documentary series, Hedayat investigates traffickers and illicit markets around the world, uncovering vast criminal networks enabled by middle men and corruption. For her work on the series, she won the 2017 Reporter/Correspondent Gracie Award (presented by the Alliance for Women in Media), and was named Journalist of the Year at the Asian Media Awards.

Fast Forward

This five-part docuseries follows Nelufar across the globe, discovering how emerging technological advances will affect daily life in the future.

Television

Year Title Role
2010 Women, Weddings, War and Me, BBC Three Presenter
2011 Music, Money and Hip Hop Honeys, BBC Three Presenter
2011 The Truth about Child Brides, BBC Three Presenter
2010-14 Newsround, CBBC Presenter and Reporter
2012 Riots and Revolutions: My Arab Journey Part One, Egypt and Bahrain, BBC Three Presenter
2012 Riots and Revolutions: My Arab Journey Part Two, Libya and Lebanon, BBC Three Presenter
2013 Shot For Going To School, BBC Three Presenter and Associate Producer
2014 Vietnam's Dog Snatchers, Unreported World, Channel 4 Reporter
2014 Channel 4 News, Channel 4 Reporter
2015 Vaccination Wars, Channel 4 Reporter
2016 The Traffickers, Fusion Media Network Investigative Correspondent
2018 Food Exposed With Nelufar Hedayat, Fremantle Media Investigative Correspondent
2018 India's Love Cheat Detectives, Unreported World, Channel 4 Reporter
2019 Story of God Season 4, National Geographic Seeker
2020 Toxic Mafia, Vice Criminal Planet/Channel 4 Host
2022 Flash Forward, Rakuten Presenter
2022 The God Thieves, Newsy In Real Life Host and co-Producer
2022 Plastic Time Bomb, Newsy In Real Life Host, co-Director and co-Producer
2023 Safety vs Freedom in El Salvador: The Dark Side of 'State of Exception' Mass Arrests, Newsy In Real Life Host