An inmate wrote a book from a cell via WhatsApp and won a literary award

"Where did I come from, the land of rivers, the country of waterfalls, the country of ancient songs, the land of mountains?" The fragment belongs to the book that he wrote on WhatsApp Behrouz Boochani, An Iranian Kurdish journalist, originally from a detention center located on the island of Manus (Papua New Guinea), where he was detained after asking for asylum at the same time. ;Australia.

The book, who's called No friend that the mountains: written from the Manus prison (No more friends than the mountain: written from Manus prison) received the first literary award from the Victorian. Boochani, who writes for The Guardian, received $ 72,000 for this distinction.

In this book, he tells of his life during the years of exile that he lived in a prison in Papua-Guinea. Today, she is no longer in this detention center, which was closed in 2017, but she is still in this Pacific country because she does not have the authorization to do so. to enter Australia, where she initially requested asylum.

Boochani arrived in Australia, by boat from Southeast Asia. The journalist decided to flee Iran because, according to him, he had been persecuted by the authorities of his country for his work as a journalist. "I did not want to end up in prison in Iran, so I left and when I arrived in Australia, they put me in jail for years," said the writer, in dialogue with the BBC.

Australia applies a very strict policy – which some badysts even call controversial and even risky – with regard to those who arrive in the country as Boochani did: without a visa, in a boat and asking for asylum.

According to the regulations in force, people who arrive in Australia in these conditions can not land in the country. They may be returned to their place of origin or detained and sent to detention centers in Nauru or Papua New Guinea. The latter was what happened to Boochani.

"When I arrived on Christmas Island (Australia) six years ago, an immigration officer told me that I was going to exile the island of Manus, a place in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I told him that I was a writer, he made fun of me and ordered the guards to exile me to Manus ", said the writer through a video that he recorded from this island where he still resides, and which was aired on the day of the awards ceremony, Australia

Boochani is still in Papua New Guinea, where he has already been granted refugee status, but like many people in a situation similar to his, he does not want to stay there. It should be remembered that this country is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with a high unemployment and poverty rate.

In 2016, Australia and the United States signed a hosting agreement providing for the transfer of approximately 1,250 refugees to this country of America who are held by Australia. in different detention centers on the Pacific Islands.

Boochani had an interview with a US official a few months ago and now hopes to receive a definition, as detailed in the note of the BBC. For the moment, he is still being held on the same island from where his stories were born.

The texts that make up today 's book were written in Farsi, from the cell of the detention center which was closed in 2017 (now on another site). The translation and compilation were entrusted to Omid Tofighian.

"I did not write it on paper because, at that time, the guards would come into our rooms, every week or every month, to seize our possessions." I was afraid of losing my writings. It was better that I write them and send them simply, "he said. in the interview

To participate in the Victorian Literature Prize, writers must be Australian citizens or permanent residents of that country. However, the Wheeler Center, the body that administers the literary awards, decided to make an exception in this case and accepted the postulation of the Boochani book.

"I have been in a cage for years, and during that time my mind has always produced words, words that have made me cross borders, they have taken me elsewhere, to unknown places. . " I really believe that words are more powerful than words. the fences of this place, this prison, "concluded Boochani receiving the distinction.