In Defence of Golriz Ghahraman

In 2017, when Ghahraman was elected to Parliament as a Green MP, she recounted both the highlights and challenges of her role -

There was love, support, and encouragement.

And on the flipside, there was intense, visceral and unchecked hate.

That came with violent threats - many of them. More on that later.

People accused her of being a terrorist, of planning to smuggle bombs into Parliament, and other nefarious motivations.

Back then, Gharaman revealed:

“Post 9/11, I began to realise at least somewhere out there in the world I wasn’t welcome and I wasn’t trusted and I wasn’t equal.

It didn’t matter that I felt Kiwi; it is the way people look at you.

When they start blaming a whole group of people based on their race, or religion or ethnicity or nationality for something like terror, or any social ill.”

“That is the basis of all the atrocities I’ve worked on.

That is how it starts.”

At the time, she also noted the perils of dehumanising another - i.e. removing from another their fullness as …