Journalism & Photojournalism
A selection of journalism, commentary, and photojournalism examining migration, border regimes, and state violence — informed by reporting, analysis, and lived experience, and published by international outlets including The Guardian and ABC News.
THE GUARDIAN · OPINION · 2021
I know firsthand the torture of offshore detention. How can Labor maintain such a racist system?
By Elahe Zivardar
A firsthand account of Australia’s offshore detention regime, exposing the enduring psychological and physical violence embedded within its structure.
Drawing on lived experience, the piece challenges the continuation of a system the author argues remains fundamentally racist despite shifts in political leadership.
Selected Publication
“Searching for Aramsayesh Gah” – A Film about Borders, Violence and Imagining an Abode for Serenity
Guest Publication · University of Oxford (Border Criminologies)
By Elahe Zivardar & Omid Tofighian
A reflection on offshore detention as a system of violence, tracing its human consequences through film, testimony, and lived experience.
Architecture of Torture
What does it mean to survive a system designed to erase you?
Miesięcznik ZNAK (Poland) · August 2025
Anna Alboth in collaboration with Elahe Zivardar
An examination of offshore detention as a system of control, where architecture, policy, and isolation converge to erase identity and suppress hope.
NAURU PRISON THEORY AS
PUBLIC PHILOSOPHY
Displacement, Exile And Creative Resistance Against Border Violence
The Philosopher Spring 2024: Punishment
Omid Tofighian and Elahe Zivardar
A collaborative philosophical inquiry into Australia’s offshore detention regime, this piece develops Nauru Prison Theory through lived experience, co-authorship, and resistance. It reframes philosophy as a collective practice emerging from sites of incarceration and exile.
Selected Writing
iNews · Opinion · Apr 2022
I Was Detained Offshore — I Urge Priti Patel to Rethink Rwanda
By Elahe Zivardar
A firsthand account of offshore detention and a warning against the UK’s Rwanda policy, exposing its human cost and political implications.
The Guardian · Letters · Dec 2021
UK warned not to replicate Australia’s Offshore immigration detention centres
By Elahe Zivardar