Podcasts about Omid Tofighian

Behrouz Boochani and Abdul Samad Haidari speak about their journeys as refugees, the systems which demonize asylum seekers as criminals, Manus Prison Theory and structural oppression, and the role of art, literature and storytelling in resistance an healing. Guest Profiles:Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish-Iranian journalist, human rights defender, writer, film producer and research fellow at Canterbury University. He, along with Omid Tofighian, developed the Manus Prison Theory which is a framework to understand offshore detention facilities and how this system functions as a form of systemic violence and oppression against asylum seekers. Behrouz himself was detained at Manus Island for two years after its official closure in 2019 and his memoir, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, won the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction in January 2019.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/31/writing-from-manus-prison-a-scathing-critique-of-domination-and-oppressionAbdul Samad Haidari is journalist, poet and refugee advocate. From the Hazara community in Afghanistan, he was forced to flee Afghanistan on multiple occasions having spent his childhood as a refugee in Pakistan and Iran before returning. His journalism had a particular focus on women and children's rights, terrorist group actions, transparency and accountability in government, and the systematic persecution of minority groups in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.  He spent 9 years in a refugee camp in Indonesia before making in to New Zealand. The podcast title "I am but more than a refugee" is an homage to one of the poems in his recent book. "The Unsent Condolences" https://abdulsamadhaidari.wixsite.com/site/booksSupport the showSupport us and reach out!https://smoothbrainsociety.comhttps://www.patreon.com/SmoothBrainSocietyInstagram: @thesmoothbrainsocietyTikTok: @thesmoothbrainsocietyTwitter/X: @SmoothBrainSocFacebook: @thesmoothbrainsocietyMerch and all other links: Linktreeemail: thesmoothbrainsociety@gmail.com

UNSW's Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS) co-hosted a discussion held on 9 February 2023 with Behrouz Boochani, as he concluded his first visit to Australia. The discussion explored Behrouz's complicated path to freedom, and the role of courage, collaboration and creativity in challenging a dehumanising asylum system. The first part of the panel featured Madeline Gleeson (Kaldor Centre) and Zaki Haidari (Amnesty International) with Behrouz's translator and collaborator, Moones Mansoubi, and Guardian Australia's Ben Doherty. In the second part of the discussion, Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofighian join Moones Mansoubi and Ben Doherty for a discussion about the new book, Freedom, Only Freedom (Bloomsbury 2022), and the liberating power of writing, creative relationships and resistance. The panel is hosted by RACS Director Sarah Dale and Kaldor Centre Director Jane McAdam AO.

Kurdish-Iranian refugee and award-winning writer Behrouz Boochani delivered the 2022 Wallace Wurth Lecture at UNSW Sydney on Tuesday 13 December, sharing why a human narrative is integral to fighting Australia's current refugee policies. Boochani, who is an adjunct associate professor at UNSW, spent over six years in offshore immigration detention in Manus Detention Centre, where he and his fellow asylum seekers endured conditions that violated international refugee law. His new book, Freedom, Only Freedom, is a collection of his prison writings, translated and edited by his long-time translators and collaborators Omid Tofighian and Moones Mansoubi. Mr Boochani's work is combined with essays from experts on migration, refugee rights, politics, and literature. Following an introduction by Sarah Dale (RACS), Omid Tofighian and Moones Mansoubi, Boochani is in conversation with human rights lawyer Madeline Gleeson sharing his stories of resilience and shed light on the shameful refugee policies that the Australian government continues to endorse. Freedom, Only Freedom can be purchased here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are thrilled to bring you this special episode with Kurdish-Iranian journalist, writer, filmmaker and refugee advocate Behrouz Boochani. The episode includes conversations Kate had with Behrouz in Aotearoa at Verb Wellington and in Naarm, Melbourne ahead of his sold out event at The Wheeler Centre. At Behrouz's request, Kate also spoke to his translators and collaborators Omid Tofighian & Moones Mansoubi about how they work together, the making of the new book Freedom, Only Freedom: The Prison Writings of Behrouz Boochani and the current situation in Iran.  We feel very lucky to have had this opportunity to speak to Boochani, Tofighian & Mansoubi about their work to bring the stories of Manus Prison to the global community.  Associate Professor Behrouz Boochani graduated from Tarbiat Moallem University and Tarbiat Modares University, both in Tehran; he holds a Masters degree in political science, political geography and geopolitics. Moones Mansoubi is a translator and Community Arts and Cultural Development worker based in Sydney. Her work is dedicated mainly to supporting and collaborating with migrants and people seeking asylum in Australia. Omid Tofighian is an award winning lecturer, researcher and community advocate. His publications include the translation of Boochani's award winning No Friend But the Mountains: Writings from Manus Prison. Boochani was a writer for the Kurdish language magazine Werya; is Associate Professor in Social Sciences at UNSW; non-resident Visiting Scholar at the Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Centre (SAPMiC), University of Sydney; Honorary Member of PEN International; and winner of an Amnesty International Australia 2017 Media Award, the Diaspora Symposium Social Justice Award, the Liberty Victoria 2018 Empty Chair Award, and the Anna Politkovskaya award for journalism. He publishes regularly with The Guardian, and his writing also features in The Saturday Paper, Huffington Post, New Matilda, The Financial Times and The Sydney Morning Herald. Boochani is also co-director (with Arash Kamali Sarvestani) of the 2017 feature-length film Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time; and collaborator on Nazanin Sahamizadeh's play Manus. Boochani's book, No Friend But The Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature in addition to the Nonfiction category. He has also won the Special Award at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Australian Book Industry Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year, and the National Biography Prize. It has been published in 18 languages in 23 countries and is currently being adapted for both stage and screen. Behrouz has been appointed adjunct associate professor in the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of NSW and visiting professor at Birkbeck Law School at the University of London. He was a political prisoner incarcerated by the Australian government in Papua New Guinea for almost seven years. In November 2019 Behrouz escaped to New Zealand. He now resides in Wellington, New Zealand. Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!

Bri Lee is a lawyer and writer. Her books include the award winning Eggshell Skull and Beauty. Her latest is Who Gets to Be Smart.Who Gets to Be Smart begins in Oxford. Bri Lee is visiting a friend there on a Rhodes Scholarship. As she wanders the lanes and cobbles of Oxford's campuses Lee thinks back to Virginia Woolf decrying the iniquity that sees Women scholars living in relative squalor compared to their male peers.Woolf wrote about this iniquity, positing the solution that women needed A Room of One's Own, and five hundred pound a year.Nearly a century later Bri Lee realises that this is not enough. That equality within the system does not address the systemic privilege and bias that props up the system, creating a framework of elitism that maintains power in the hands of a few. Where Woolf worries about the lack of money for women, Lee questions where the money comes from. In the money and power that prop up the colleges she finds a system of institutionalising education that reinforces the very systems that fund them.Who Gets to Be Smart challenges the rationale of the academy and its stranglehold on so-called intelligence. The books takes the reader on a tour through the racist legacy of Cecil Rhodes and his bequest that founded the Rhodes scholarship, through to the contemporary parallel of the Australian Ramsay Centre. The Ramsay Centre's mission to fund scholarships in ‘western civilisation' highlights that tertiary institutions are not simply neutral spaces of so-called higher learning, but active participants in a process of consolidating power through ideas.Lee asks the reader to consider the the concept of Kyriarchy and Kyriarchal systems. Now there are multiple wonderful, much better qualified explainers of Kyriarchy including Bri Lee and Omid Tofighian whom Lee engages with (Read them if my examples make no sense). My understanding of Kyriarchy is that it is interrelated systems in our social world that work to keep us off-balance and subservient, and thereby controlling us indirectly. Kyriarchy plays on your job insecurity and worries about getting a home loan, even as you strive to have an Insta-perfect life and send your child to the best school. And Kyriarchy relies on multiple, intersecting systems that worsen as you move away from my white-bread example above. Kyriarchy is particularly cruel if you do not follow the dominant religion, speak another language and don't look like your neighbour.Who Gets to Be Smart explores the myriad ways in which knowledge is held and denied and at its heart is the way that systems of power work to keep us always further down, while looking up. It asks to question why we are so fractured, viewing potential friends and allies as competition, while raising up our oppressors as paragons.Throughout Who Gets to Be Smart Lee explores the various mechanisms of centralising power through smarts. We are treated to the dubious history of ‘intelligence' and intelligence testing, a system that has sought to simplify a complex system and sort us all into our places. School systems and the ongoing battle for funding in Australia comes under the microscope.As the training grounds for the type of institutionalised thinking the book discusses they are incredibly unequally served. Lee gives us the numbers on this iniquity and explores how a country that prides itself on having an egalitarian spirit will also commit to Olympic level mental gymnastics to justify this inequality.Who Gets To Be Smart is an important book for a world that feels forever to be dividing itself along ideological lines, because it seeks to examine how those ideologues got where they are and what maintains their status. It puts in the readers hands a guide to pulling back the curtain.Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew PopleWant more great conversations with Australian authors?Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

After fleeing from Iran in 2013, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani became a political prisoner, detained indefinitely in legal limbo in the Australian-run Manus Regional Processing Centre, Papua New Guinea. On a smuggled mobile phone, he chronicled six years of survival and witness, tapped out in Farsi in a series of single messages, and subsequently translated into English by Omid Tofighian. The result, Boochani's against-all-odds 'No Friend But The Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison', has been much feted, winning Australia's richest literary prize – the Victorian Prize for Literature – as well as a host of other awards. The Age called it an “...intense, lyrical and psychologically perceptive prose-poetry masterpiece”. Now resident in New Zealand, Boochani speaks with Julie Hill. Supported by Platinum Patrons Carol & Gerard Curry. AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL WAITUHI O TĀMAKI 2021

Composer Luke Styles, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani and translator and collaborator Omid Tofighian join Richard ahead of ‘No Friend but the Mountains: A Symphonic Song Cycle’ premiering at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Inspired by Boochani’s book of the same name written secretly in Farsi whilst on Manus Island, this adaptation explores his brutal detention experience through the language of music. Susan Provan, CEO of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival speaks about the challenges of returning to the stage after the cancellation of last year’s festival just weeks before its launch. The 2021 program will feature local acts front and centre, as well as an array of online and on demand streaming events from much loved international names. Meg McNena, writer of ‘A Name for Herself’, talks about her new play following the women at the forefront of Ireland’s Easter Rising of 1916. Based on the true story of Irish activist Countess Constance Markievicz, the play is directed by Dublin-born Lynda Fleming, and premieres at the Renaissance Theatre, East Kew.Finally, Eugenia Flynn, Director of Collingwood Yards unveils the new arts precinct and community hub located in the heart of Melbourne’s inner north. Spanning over 6500sqm and with over 50 separate tenancies, the space will open in stages from April this year.

What everyone should know about a Kurdish-Iranian refugee's time in Manus prison. Using smuggled mobile phones Kurdish-Iranian refugee Boochani wrote No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison via text messages and with the assistance of translator Omid Tofighian. This book of resistance is a must read for everyone. It is a work of great creativity, beauty and struggle. ⇨ YOU WILL LEARN: * Learn how Behrouz Boochani survived a harrowing journey to Australia * Hear first-hand what life was like inside Manus prison * Discover what makes the Kurdish-Iranian refugee's writing so captivating * And be motivated to start your own life-story project by harnessing some of Boochani's extreme determination to create and document ⇨ FULL ARTICLE Click to read: https://www.foreveryoungautobiographies.com/behrouz-boochani/ ⇨ VIDEO PODCAST Click to watch: https://youtu.be/Wa_bi_rOm1s ⇨ FREE GIFT Four steps to plan your autobiography chapters - FREE structure success video training, click to sign up: https://wp.me/P8NwjM-3o ⇨ YOUR SAY Are you planning to read or have read Behrouz Boochani's No Friend But the Mountains? I'd love to hear what you thought of the book. Leave me a comment here https://www.foreveryoungautobiographies.com/contact/ ♡ Thanks for listening - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE if you are new and SHARE THE SHOW if you found it helpful! Happy writing! ⇨ ABOUT ME Hi and welcome! My name is Nicola and I help you learn how to write and self-publish life stories for family and friends so that unique memories live on. I've told thousands of people's stories as a daily print journalist since 2002 and would love to hear yours! ⇨ WEBSITE https://www.foreveryoungautobiographies.com ⇨ FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/foreveryoungautobiographies ⇨ YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6nfZWWTeRpBWMcxluLDa-w

"Ningún otro amigo que las montañas" es la novela que el poeta y escritor kurdo-iraní Behrouz Boochani escribió por watsup mientras se encontraba recluido en el centro de detención australiano de la Isla de Manus. Escribía a su amigo filósofo Omid Tofighian quién tradujo la obra al inglés y la publicó. Después de recibir muchos premios internacionales la Editorial Raig Verd ha decidido publicarla en catalán y castellano y para hacerlo posible ha iniciado una campaña de crowfunding en Goteo.org. La editora Laura Huerga nos explica detalles mientras suena la música de: La Malinche- Hija de la Tierra; Grup Yorum- Berivan; Aynur-Govende; Ciwan Haco- Wilo; Burhan Berken- Keçe; Mehmet Atli- Ay Le Gule; Koma Amed- Hoy memo; Mansour- Aziz Delami. Escuchar audio

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.

Join award winning author and activist, , in conversation Behrouz Boochaniwith his translator Omid Tofighian and author Mark Isaacs. is an autobiographical account of Behrouz Boochani's perilous journey to Christmas Island and his subsequent incarceration in an Australian government immigration detention facility on Manus Island. No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison Please Note: Behrouz had to Skype into this session so the audio is a bit rough. We cleaned it up best we could and it is 100% worth the listen. SHOWNOTES: Writes4Festivals Podcasthttp://www.writes4women.com/writes4festivals/Facebook - @Writes4FestivalsTwitter / Instagram - @w4wpodcast Wollongong Writer's Festivalhttps://wollongongwritersfestival.comFacebook @wollongongwritersfestival/Twitter @WGongWritFest Behrouz BoochaniFacebook - @BehrouzBoochaniJournalistTwitter - @BehrouzBoochani Listen Up Podcasting (Kel Butler)www.listenuppodcasting.com.auFacebook / Twitter - @kelbutler @listenuppodcasting

An insightful conversation with academic, activist and Behrouz Boochani's translator Omid Tofighian, plus a snippet from the live edition of Race Matters as part of NAIDOC Week 2019.

Anna and Amanda discuss the long-list for the 2019 Miles Franklin Award, including a shock omission. Our book of the week is No Friend But The Mountains by Behrouz Boochani, translated by Omid Tofighian.  This account of Boochani's journey seeking asylum and his detention in Manus Island Prison won the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for Non-Fiction and Literature and the New South Wales Premier's Special Award. It was written by text messages on a mobile phone.  Boochani is still on Manus Island.  Described as a 'tour de force' (The Saturday Paper); a 'shattering book' (Benjamin Law); and 'unforgettable' (Australian Financial Review), this is a must-read. Next week, Anna and Annie will be reading Lanny by Max Porter. Follow us! Facebook: Books On The Go Email: booksonthegopodcast@gmail.com Instagram: @abailliekaras and @mr_annie Twitter: @abailliekaras and @mister_annie Litsy: @abailliekaras and @mr_annie Credits Artwork: Sascha Wilkosz

Anna and Amanda discuss the British Book Awards: Normal People by Sally Rooney won Book of the Year; Becoming by Michelle Obama won best non-fiction and audiobook. Our book of the week is At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell. The story of a successful architect who regrets the pace of urban development in Korea and a lost love, this won the Emile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature and was long-listed for the Man Booker International Prize 2019.   Next up, Anna and Annie will be reading Lanny by Max Porter and Anna and Amanda will be back with No Friend But the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani, translated by Omid Tofighian. Follow us! Facebook: Books On The Go Email: booksonthegopodcast@gmail.com Instagram: @abailliekaras and @amandalhayes99 Twitter: @abailliekaras Litsy: @abailliekaras Credits Artwork: Sascha Wilkosz  

This week on Breakfasters, we get to hear about Cath's experience as a celebrant. Celia Pacquola gives us all the details about the third series of "Rosehaven". We get another visit from Dr. Jen to talk about the science behind procrastination. Christos Tsolkas and Stephen Nicolazzo tells us about their vision behind the production "Merciless Gods" at the Arts Centre in Melbourne. "No Friends but the Mountains" won the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards this year, and we have a chat with the translator of the book, Dr. Omid Tofighian. 

In this special bonus episode of Great Conversations Andrew speaks with Dr Omid Tofighian, discussing Behrouz Boochani's No Friend But the Mountains.No Friend But the Mountains takes the reader into Australia’s offshore detention facility where Behrouz Boochani has been imprisoned for five years. Omid is an academic at the University of Sydney and the University of Cairo. He worked as a friend, collaborator and translator for Behrouz on No Friend But the Mountains and provides valuable insights into Behrouz’ experience and his philosophy in No Friend But the Mountains.

3CR Breakfast Thursday 2 August 2018with Em, Katia and Apeec7:00am  Acknowledgement of Country7:05am Song - Searching for Gold, Honeymoon Bridge.  Honeymoon Bridge launches their debut album this Friday 3 August at Northcote Uniting Church. Find them at honeymoonbridge.com7:09am Headlines and Alternative News7:26am Song - Indigenous Land, DRMNGNOW . They played an amazing gig to launch this new track at the Gaso last Wednesday7:30am Jules Kim, CEO of Scarlett Alliance talking about the problems with the My Health Record system (centralised online summary of your key health information), including how the current opt-out system will affect sex workers7:45am Nikki Madgwick, a proud Worimi-Biripi woman from mid-north coast NSW who has lived and worked on Wurundjeri land most her life. Nikki writes and performs amazing poetry and works at HICSA, a not-for-profit Indigenous organisation based in Healesville as the Community Engagement Worker.This Saturday 4th August is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day - and this year marks 30 years since this important day was first established.7:56am Song - Sing Until Sunrise, The Merindas8:00am Omid Tofighian, lecturer, researcher and community advocate, combining philosophy with interests in rhetoric, religion, popular culture, transnationalism, displacement and discrimination. Since 2013, writer, journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani has been held in the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre. Boochani's book No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison is being launched tonight in Sydney. We were joined by Omid who translated Boochani's text from Farsi to English.8:25am LIVE CROSS to Katia (Abolitionist and Transformative Justice Centre) speaking from outside the Prisons 2018 Conference where the ATJC has called a snap action to demand an end to Youth Incarceration.

BAFTA and MOBO award-winning UK hip hop artist and writer Akala joins a panel of local hip hop artists, students and activists to talk about the evolution of socially conscious hip hop music, and its inspiration for a new generation of artists and activists. After an acknowldegment of Country by DOBBY, and an introduction by Uncle Ken Canning and Dr Omid Tofighian the first panel discuss 'Race Consciousness and Hip Hop'. Chair: Frank Trotman-Golden (Indij Hip Hop Show) Panel: Kaiya Aboagye, PhD Candidate, the University of Sydney Akala, BAFTA and MOBO award winning UK hip hop artist and writer Tasman Keith, Emcee and performer Kween G Kibone, Emcee and performer, radio producer and presenter and youth activist More information: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/akala_and_artists_in_conversation.shtml