Arts
Sydney PEN president Mark Isaacs interviews former PEN Prisoner of Conscience and Kurdish-Iranian writer, Behrouz Boochani, and Dr Omid Tofighian, translator of his book "No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison". This was Behrouz’s first public speaking event since he escaped from Papua New Guinea. Just one week earlier, Behrouz made a secretive journey to New Zealand with the assistance of close friends, Amnesty International and UNHCR. Behrouz was one of hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees who were exiled to Manus Island, Papua New Guinea for more than six years by the Australian government as part of Australia’s punitive border control policies. This event was recorded by Wollongong Writers Festival in November 2019.