Abstract
This chapter is a case study of the extraordinary story of Kurdish-Iranian journalist and author Behrouz Boochani. Behrouz has spent his life as a member of a marginalised group, whether that be in his homeland of Iran where he was persecuted for preserving the Kurdish culture and language or in Papua New Guinea where he was persecuted as a refugee. Behrouz wrote his book, No Friend But The Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison (2018), secretly on a smartphone while held in detention on Manus Island and sent it in instalments to his translators in Australia via WhatsApp messages. After publication, it received several major literary prizes and is acclaimed as a masterpiece. This chapter looks at the process of writing as an act of resistance and resilience.
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Notes
- 1.
Kyriarchy is a feminist theory formulated by Harvard theologian Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza which describes interconnected and intersectional social systems of domination, oppression and submission.
- 2.
Refoulement is the return of persons seeking asylum to a country where they face persecution.
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Acknowledgement
Thank you to Behrouz Boochani for graciously offering his time to work with me on this chapter. His work ensures that the horrors of Manus Island will not be forgotten and that the politicians responsible will be remembered as monsters. Behrouz’s work will no doubt join the famous canon of writings from prison alongside Nelson Mandela, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Oscar Wilde, Pramoedya Ananta Toer and Primo Levi.
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Isaacs, M. (2021). Behrouz Boochani: Writing as Resilience and Resistance. In: Adelaide, D., Attfield, S. (eds) Creative Writing Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73674-3_16
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