Ruth Halbert
artist, weaver
Paper boat Rud.jpg

Blog: Dear Prime Minister

On July 30 2016 I started writing letters to the Prime Minister of Australia to protest against the imprisonment and torture of the asylum seekers in the offshore detention centres of Manus Island and Nauru. I started with the intention of writing a letter a day for every person in detention until they are all freed. There are more than 1800 asylum seekers in off shore detention. These are those letters and any response from Mr Turnbull.

End offshore detention #222

Dear Prime Minister

Ms Mina Taherkhani is a refugee from Iran. We have imprisoned her on Nauru since January 2014. These are her words:

“I am Mina Taherkhani. I’m 35 years old. I escaped from violence to seek peace and freedom. I’ve been in the detention centre in Nauru for over three years, where Australian people wouldn’t even keep their animals.

I was yearning for justice in a country which claims to uphold women’s rights but all I have experienced is terror and panic. Systemic violence keeps us in Nauru and it seems our pain has become very good business. We just asked for support and a safe place from the government but what they gave us was a hell called Nauru.”
— Mina Taherkhani

Ms Taherkhani and the other women detained in Nauru are at daily risk of sexual assault and rape. Women who have been raped are denied medical care and punished for seeking help. That is your misogyny in action, Prime Minister.

Close the camps and bring them here.

politics, liesRuth HalbertNauru, refugees, violence, closethecamps, bringthemhereComment