34 Facts About Behrouz Boochani

Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish-Iranian journalist, human rights defender, writer and film producer living in New Zealand.

Behrouz Boochani was held in the Australian-run Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea from 2013 until its closure in 2017.

Behrouz Boochani remained on the island before being moved to Port Moresby along with the other detainees around September 2019.

Behrouz Boochani has described himself as "a child of war", referring to the 1980s war between the Iraqi Ba'athists and "Iranian zealots" fought largely in his Kurdish homeland in western Iran.

Behrouz Boochani graduated from Tarbiat Modares University and the Tarbiat Moallem University, both in Tehran, with a master's degree in political science, political geography and geopolitics.

Behrouz Boochani began his journalistic career writing for the student newspaper at Tarbiat Modares University, before working as a freelance journalist for several Iranian newspapers such as Kasbokar Weekly, Qanoon, and Tehran -based Etemaad as well as the Iranian Sports Agency.

Behrouz Boochani wrote articles on Middle East politics, minority rights and the survival of Kurdish culture.

Behrouz Boochani co-founded and produced the Kurdish magazine Werya, which he regarded as his most important work, and which attracted the attention of the Iranian authorities because of its political and social content.

The magazine promoted Kurdish culture and politics; Behrouz Boochani felt it very important for the Kurdish city of Ilam to retain its Kurdish identity, language and culture.

Behrouz Boochani was not in the office that day, but 11 of Behrouz Boochani's colleagues were arrested, several of whom were subsequently imprisoned.

Behrouz Boochani started making contact with journalists and human rights defenders outside the camp.

Behrouz Boochani gathered information about human rights abuses within the camp and sent them via a secret mobile phone to news organisations and advocacy groups such as The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, the Refugee Action Collective, and the United Nations.

In September 2015, PEN International and a coalition of human rights groups launched an international campaign on Behrouz Boochani's behalf, urging the Australian government to abide by its obligations to the principle of non-refoulement, as defined by Article 33 of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

Behrouz Boochani has asked repeatedly to be handed to the UN.

Behrouz Boochani became a spokesperson for the men in his compound, Foxtrot, meeting with PNG immigration and other officials as well as Amnesty International and the UNHCR representatives.

Behrouz Boochani was moved to Chauka, the solitary confinement block constructed of shipping containers, for three days.

Behrouz Boochani was jailed during the 2015 hunger strike that was put down by force; he spent eight days inside Lorengau prison and was then released without charge after being asked to stop reporting.

Behrouz Boochani said in a radio interview on Autonomous Action Radio ahead of the release of his film Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time in 2016 that it was his intention to show the Australian public what the government was doing to detainees on the island, and spoke of the mental torture caused by being deprived of hope.

In March 2017, Behrouz Boochani's plight was raised in the Australian House of Representatives by Australian parliamentarian Adam Bandt.

Behrouz Boochani wrote of what was happening and of his fear during the siege that followed the closure, as well as the articles he wrote for The Guardian at the time, among other things, in WhatsApp messages to translator and friend Omid Tofighian, later published in full.

On 28 November 2017, Behrouz Boochani sent a message to the Australian public via the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre which was published on their website, thanking them for their humanity, and describing the recent peaceful protest by refugees on the island after the closure of the detention centre, which was met with force.

Behrouz Boochani said that Peter Dutton was not correct in saying that their only desire was to come to Australia; they only want freedom and safety in any safe country, and they were not free nor safe on Manus.

Behrouz Boochani was featured as the subject of ABC TV's Australian Story.

Behrouz Boochani said that he would not be following through with resettlement in Papua New Guinea, and now regrets his decision to aim for Australia.

On 14 November 2019, Behrouz Boochani left Manus and travelled to New Zealand on a one-month visa to speak at the WORD Christchurch festival in Christchurch.

Behrouz Boochani said upon arrival that he was savouring life as a "free man".

Behrouz Boochani feels a sense of duty towards the men he was forced to leave behind on PNG.

Still in New Zealand in late February 2020, Behrouz Boochani, responding to Peter Dutton's comment that he would never be allowed into Australia, said that he has never said that he wanted to go to Australia.

On 24 July 2020, the New Zealand Government granted refugee status to Behrouz Boochani, allowing him to stay in New Zealand indefinitely and to apply for a residency visa.

On that day it was announced that Behrouz Boochani had been appointed a Senior Adjunct Research Fellow of the University of Canterbury, based at Ka Waimaero, the Ngai Tahu Research Centre.

On 6 December 2022 Behrouz Boochani started a tour of Australia, with several speaking engagements in Sydney and elsewhere.

Behrouz Boochani said the new film should incorporate some of his previous work, and that of his fellow asylum seekers, as a record of part of Australian history.

Behrouz Boochani is one of the subjects of, as well as chief collaborator on, the play Manus written by Leila Hekmatnia and Keyvan Sarreshteh, Directed by Nazanin Sahamizadeh in 2017, which tells the story of eight Iranians who fled Iran for Australia.

Poetry Behrouz Boochani was set to music composed by Katie Noonan and performed by a chorus of Tasmanian women and girls, interspersed with the text of the play.