European Parliament hosts Kurdish novelist Behrouz Boochani

Boochani became famous in prison for his videos and for writing the novel ‘No Friend But the Mountains’, which had a worldwide impact.
Behrouz Boochani speaking to Kurdistan 24, June 7, 2023. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)
Behrouz Boochani speaking to Kurdistan 24, June 7, 2023. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish literary scholar, was imprisoned on an Australian island for six years and later received the country's highest literary award.

Boochani became famous in prison for his videos and for writing the novel ‘No Friend But the Mountains’, which had a worldwide impact. In 2019, he received both the Australian Book Industry Awards and the National Biography Award. 

That same year, the Australian Anthropological Society announced the creation of a new award to be named in honor of Boochani. The Award was created in recognition of his remarkable contributions to public understandings of contemporary Australian life.

Boochani was hosted at the European Parliament on June 6 and attended a conference on the Kurdish issue.

“It is true that we are divided geographically, but we have gotten closer to each other in terms of culture and language,” he told Kurdistan24.

Boochani, himself an asylum seeker from the Iranian-Kurdish city of Ilam, arrived in Australia by boat in 2013. He was immediately captured and transported to one of the country’s offshore immigration processing centers, located on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

He is one of almost 600 refugees that reside in Manus’ camps, where the harsh conditions have drawn widespread criticism.

Despite his detention, the journalist and writer has been recognized for his achievements, including his debut autobiographical novel published in 2018.

In September 2019, Boochani was appointed as a visiting law professor at Birbeck, University of London.