Mortezza_Poorvadi

How has listening to the interview with Mortezza Poorvadi increased your understanding of different voices, different worlds' Poorvadi a born in Iran from an Iranian father and Iraqi into a struggling family that was then forced to leave Iran due to the Iranian Mullah discovering his mother was not Iranian but Iraqi. In the interview ‘The conversation hour’ between Richard Fielder and Mortezza Poorvadi we learn about the struggles that Mortezza and his family had to face when trying to migrate from their country into Australia. We are able to form a good understanding of what this family experienced in their home Iran, their personal experience with the people smugglers when crossing the boarders of different countries they visited on there way to Australia and Villawood an Australian detention center that refugees are forced to stay. This interview can be very helpful in increasing my understanding of different voices, different worlds because it gives a good insight into what the life of a refugee coming from a different country and the struggles him and his family went through during their time of crossing the different boarders. This interview is very useful for understanding what like was like in refugee camps as well as the personal experiences they had. We are able to therefore empathize with Mortezza Poorvadi. The Poorvadi family had an extremely rough time in Iran. As there father was from Iran and his mother was from Iraq making it against the law for her to live in Iran and be married to an Iranian man. This stopped his mother from being ever aloud to speak in public. However soon the Iranian Mullah officials and the army of Saddam uncovered Mortezza’s mother’s true nationality. This was because there eldest son wanted to apply for university yet he the university needed both parents birth certificates. As his mother’s identity was trying to be kept a secret the husband tried to bribe the university with money in order to let his son study. Soon after the university notified the officials and the family was forced immediately to leave the country due to thinking the mother was an Iraqi spy. The family then put their lives in the hands of people smugglers that took them across from Iran to Indonesia. Mortezza says in the interview ‘we had no power. Here we were like toys in the hands of people smugglers, and they were passing us around. We knew it, but we couldn’t do anything for it’. From this quote we can understand how Mortezza and his family felt, helpless. They had no choice but to put all their faith and trust into the hands of these people. He always described the people smugglers as being ‘dishonest and unreliable’ making it very scary for himself and his family and making the trips across the boarders feel like years rather than days. The journey from Indonesia to Christmas Island they went on a tiny boat measuring to be 4 metres by 12 metres. On this boat 284 people were closely cramped. On the boat trips he said ‘people were always looking for land’. Everybody was scared and fearful of what to expect next. In Villawood, Australia Mortezza experienced best condition compared to all the other detentions centers however when Mortezza arrived at Villawood he was so overwhelmed with all the stress and tumor he had been through and therefore became very depressed. Mortezza became desperate and this lead to the many attempts of him trying to take his own life. He felt helpless and described it as being ‘like animals in a zoo’. This hopelessness drived him to sew his lips together as knew that a hunger strike was the most effective way to gain the public attention. Other ways Mortezza attempted suicide was by hanging himself, cutting his wrists and drinking shampoo. All Mortezza longed for was the feeling of freedom. From listening to this interview we are able to gain an understanding of what Mortezza and his family went through just to have freedom. He waited 4 years for freedom and when looking back on his time and experience in the detention camps he thinks he just couldn’t cope with the noise. He described it as being ‘absolute hell’. He is bitter and believes that he wasted his teenage years and a waste of life at that time. From listening to this interview we are able to gain a solid understanding of what refugees go through everyday to just gain freedom. We also gain insight in what life is like in Iran and the officials that forced his family to leave the country.