The Clifton Hill resident was an inspirational speaker at a Banksia Gardens soccer tournament in Broadmeadows last Thursday as part of Refugee Week celebrations.

The event was organised by The Big Issue to highlight the plight of refugees such as Mr Neghad in the community.

The 34-year-old creative arts student related his experience of fleeing from Tehran after being jailed five times for political activism.

"I found that [the Tehran government] was so wrong in so many ways. How it treated people, especially women and homosexuals, was really bad," Mr Neghad said.

"So I made the decision to stand against them and did everything I could, but in the end I couldn't live there any more, so I left."

He landed in Indonesia in 2002 and paid a people smuggler $4000 to put him on a boat to Australia.

"He told me I could go to Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, Canada or Australia," Mr Neghad said. "I didn't even choose Australia - he just told me that it would take two days with the boat and I said, OK. It took 12 days and [the trip] was absolutely awful."

On his arrival at Ashmore Reef in Darwin, Mr Neghad was transferred to the Woomera detention centre where he remained for 11 months.

"I fled Tehran to escape jail and I was in jail again. Then when the deportations started, I realised I couldn't go back and I wasn't going forward, so I escaped. Life can be very weird. I grew up in a wealthy family in a little town and I ended up in prison."

He came across The Big Issue staff, who got him legal advice and eventually a visa.