Kurdish refugees from Kurdistan Iran wins Australia's richest literary prize

ARK News: Kurdish refugee from Kurdistan Iran the Behrouz Boochani, who escaped the risk of arrest in Iran in 2013, won the Australian Literature Award, according to the website of the Iranian channel "Iran International" of the Iranian opposition.

Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian Kurd asylum seeker in Australia, won the Victorian Literary Award but he cannot attend the awards ceremony, although the award is Australia's most valuable literary award.

Boochani’s book won which titled "I do not have a friend, except the mountains", is the book that tells his story in the isolated Isle of Manus prison for five years because he does not have sufficient identification papers to seek asylum.

The award for the best non-fiction book of the year is estimated at A $ 25,000 and $ 100,000 for the Victorian Literature Award.

Behrouz Born in 1983, who is Kurdish refugee from the Kurdish city of Ilam (western Iran) and borders to the Kurdistan region, he studied political science at the University of Teacher Education in Tehran and initially worked as a journalist in a local student affairs newspaper, and he then worked in several Iranian magazines and newspapers.

After becoming editor of the Kurdish "Waria" magazine, which deals with Kurdish political and social affairs, he drew the attention of the Iranian authorities to him, especially that the newspaper was discussing "the importance of language and Kurdish language spoken by the people of the city of Ilam, and the risk of the extinction of that culture and language among the modern generation."

He left Iran in 2013; because of his anti-regime writings and the government in Iran on the one hand, and his call to the Kurds to claim their cultural and civil rights on the other hand, but he ended up in a "secluded prison" in Australia, where he "thought he would be free to practice writing."

Behrouz headed for Australia with dozens of migrants on the boat, when they encountered the Australian navy and led them to Christmas Island then to Manos in Papua New Guinea.

In an interview with Human Rights Watch, Bahruoz said the asylum application centre, which contains hundreds of detainees, is a terrible prison where suicides and torture are frequent.

After producing the documentary film "Chu kaka" with the help of the director who lives in the Netherlands, "Arash Kamali", who was able to capture the attention of human rights defenders in films festivals in the world, and urged the Australian Government to address the situation of asylum seekers.

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