Behrouz Boochani: Writing as Resilience and Resistance

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