BY DAVE McKAY
WOOMERA A 34-year-old Iranian nurse recovering in the Woomera town hospital from a near-fatal suicide attempt inside Woomera detention centre, has sent a message to well-wishers promising that she will continue to seek ways to take her own life in a desperate attempt to get her seven-year-old son accepted into Australia.
She fears for her own life and for the life of her son if she returns to Iran, but she believes that if she dies here, welfare authorities will allow an Australian family to adopt her son, and he will then be allowed to live on in Australia.
In a dramatic turn-around from the children overboard myth, here is a refugee mother who is throwing away her own life in an attempt to save her child.
The woman fled Iran after being forced to reconcile with an abusive
husband, who threatened to kill her. It appears that the woman won an appeal
against a Refugee Review Tribunal decision rejecting her
application for asylum in Australia, but the tribunal overturned the
court ruling and banned her once again fromstatus as a refugee.
She is not a bad mother at all, said Ross Parry, a repr-esentative fromthe Refugee Em-bassy in Woom-era She is, in fact, trying tomake the ulti-mate sacrifice to save her son. It is time that others took notice of this tragic case.
In a letter received by the Refugee Embassy on June 19, the woman said: I know you wanted to visit me but they didn't permit [it]. I didn't succeed in my suicide, but I [will] do again if [the immigration department] doesn't accept [my son to] get out!
The letter continues: I wanted to be free from everything, but unfortunately [my son] found me and the others stopped me. I must choose [my son's] happiness with choices like this like sacrifice.
God has chosen me to suffer more I am satisf[ied] with his decision, but I want to suffer only, not [my son]. If I need to kill myself I will do it.
Pray for all detainees. [DIMIA] plays with us, all of us, not just me All Iranians escaped from dirty policy, but unfortunately in here we found it. I can't write any more.
From Green Left Weekly, July 10, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly
home page.