In Defence of Golriz Ghahraman

Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, January 22nd, 2025 - 39 comments
Categories: act, david seymour, Dirty Politics, greens, james shaw, marama davidson, Media, media abuse, police - Tags: , , ,

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 a human being, including their kindness, generosity, suffering, as well as their dignity.

Gharaman had worked for the UN as a prosecutor for the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia. It would have been excruciating, and for a person of sensitivity, traumatic.

The Khmer Rouge was one of the most inhumane regimes in South East Asia., causing more than 2 million deaths during a 4 year reign.

Gharaman returned to NZ in 2012 after her work.

That was what drove her to political life in my view – an intimate understanding of the realities of being a minority; knowing war from a young age; and of deeply realising that unspeakable injustice can be borne from prejudice, dehumanisation, and unchecked power.

She wanted to make a difference —

Gharaman’s future was bright, her resume impeccable.

She was young, and undeniably beautiful, intelligent, caring and articulate.

She remains so today.

But her career and prospects are no longer as bright….conventionally speaking.

Two years into her tenure as MP, in 2019, Gharaman told Spinoff’s Leonie Haydn that the persistent barrage of hate, and threats of violence, had escalated so seriously and credibly, she had been assigned a security detail in Parliament – commensurate to that of a sitting Prime Minister.

The escalation occurred soon after ACT’s David Seymour told Sean Plunket on radio that Ghahraman was a:

“menace to freedom in this country”.

When asked about this, Seymour, in typical fashion, shrugged his shoulders and denied responsibility.

He also suggested Gharaman could easily absorb such incendiary speech.

But Seymour is not the victim, is he?

He is the aggressor: an Atlas Network trained stooge honed in the skills of dog-whistling, deception, and plausible deniability.

Likewise, Jordan Williams, who devoted one sided hit piece articles on Gharaman in NZME’s NZ Herald.

Unlike her, neither had to face the consequences of their speech — ongoing, persistent threats of gun violence, sexual assault, physical violence, including white supremacists in New Zealand idescribing her murder in detail by “hanging her like a lynch mob”.

In 2019, Gharaman admitted to counselling due to the anxiety:

“In terms of actual abuse, rather than micro-aggressions that you get every day undermining you generally, it’s definitely a heightened sense of anxiety.

If I see something that’s particularly threatening then it makes me worry about my family, and worry about all the other sort of young women of colour that might be consuming it when they look at my articles and things.

You kind of feel that responsibility.”

“You kind of feel that responsibility.”

A heavy burden to bear.

In 2022, in a speech to Parliament, Ghahraman spoke of her experiences as she called for peace, cohesion and support for minority groups and communities:

I know it as my daily truth, as a politician perceived to be Muslim, known to be a refugee. I’ve spoken about the threats I receive, of gun violence, death threats, calls for shotguns to be loaded.

Every minority in New Zealand knows this truth … and women in online spaces – snapping eventually into real life violence.

As leaders, we have to stop, and listen.

“As leaders, we have to stop, and listen.”

Last year, Ghahraman was convicted in New Zealand of shoplifting. She had stolen items of clothing from some high end stores.

I recall the excitement of the media at the time – and the glee of many at her downfall.

Stuff parked outside her home for days to report on “developments” and photograph her and her house. NZ Herald joined in the furore, naturally.

I felt Stuff in particular was uncouth.

Ghahraman had already admitted responsibility for her actions and was going through the legal system.

Since that time, I have frequently wondered why no-one parks outside Casey Costello’s house to ask her about the $216m of taxpayer money she set aside for tobacco companies – while the government tells us they are broke and can’t fund our healthcare – or perhaps question Costello as to why she omitted telling NZ about the $46b of benefits we would have accrued if we did not repeal smoke free generation.

How many lives would be saved?

How much more benefit and revenue we would gain from lightening the load on our healthcare and our people?

$46 BILLION – not small change and lives – Kiwi lives!

Or why Brooke Van Velden gets a pass for copying and pasting Uber policy as law into NZ.

Or why no-one has shoved a camera at Chris Bishop’s house or face asking him why his mates at Winton Property Development got on the lucrative fast-track list to build property on flood plains in South Auckland – a plan no-one else would approve.

And why David Seymour’s early childhood education changes that benefit multi-millionaires is not scrutinised with alarm – when his own Ministry says it puts NZ children at an “unacceptable risk of harm”.

Do those things not matter?

Children, lives, homes, livelihoods, our planet.

Is that not important enough for you Stuff, NZ Herald, NZME?

Can’t spare a parked journalist for the real thefts in our country?

To be very clear, I am not saying that Ghahraman shouldn’t have faced what she had to.

At the time, I said she would have to take responsibility.

And she did.

She resigned, spoke up, and admitted her actions.

She then entered the legal system and has taken on the consequences of her actions: a criminal prosecution and conviction, a loss of reputation, abuse – debilitating her career, humanity, her livelihood, and in my view, worsening her mental health balance.

During an appeal for her criminal conviction record, Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock – for police – argued the link between her actions and mental health (“complex PTSD”, as defined by a psychiatrist) was tenuous at best and “nothing more than a possibility”.

The judge, Justice Geoffrey Venning, sided with McClintock, and concluded Ghahraman’s criminal conviction – which would probably torpedo her prospects to work in law – would not have a large impact on her mental health.

Really?

Since then, Ghahraman’s been publicly vilified, mocked, abused – i.e. nothing has changed, but it has gotten much, much louder – and many more people feel justified to dehumanise her – characterise her without sympathy, understanding or compassion.

Consider this:

I doubt it.

To add final insult to injury, pointing out Ghahraman’s history of abuse is typically met with derision and denial by those who are quick to hate, and very keen to judge her.

Look: Ghahraman is not the first MP to have committed an offence (a quick list here), but in my view, the circumstances of her downfall are undeniably complex, long-standing, and deserving of awareness and compassion.

I am sorry for her pain, and also I’m sorry that I didn’t fully appreciate her circumstances until today.

Post-Script

I remember watching a years long ago interview where Ghahraman said that despite the many serious threats against her, police were effectively powerless to help.

Her Green Party leaders, Marama Davidson and James Shaw, had tried to support her, she said, but realistically, outside of Parliament House, Ghahraman had no protection and only a very small circle of understanding and empathy.

Our systems, our political class and ways of working failed to protect her – even as she asked for help…

Would her abusers and attackers feel differently if that was their mother, daughter, sister, niece, friend or lover that was subject to the same treatment?

I think they would – look at one example: Seymour valiantly defends Karen Chhour after she breaks down in Parliament, saying it’s unsafe, because she was called a “puppet” during Parliamentary debates.

“That’s totally unacceptable!” – shouts Seymour last year.

That’s very rich coming from a man who contributed to death threats on a sitting MP, yet brushed it away as ordinary political discourse.

Ghahraman once pointed out the risks if people were dehumanised.

Too many did that to her, and too many continue unrelentingly, and self-righteously, today.

Ghahraman deserves compassion, and she also deserves to know that New Zealand media will no longer persecute her for clicks or novelty.

We failed her as much as she chose her actions in the end – and as somone who left Parliament over a year ago, the time for her healing, friendship and peace is now.

Let her be, and let her be understood by more of us.

Give that gift to her, Aotearoa New Zealand.

This is a published excerpt from the Mountain Tui Substack

39 comments on “In Defence of Golriz Ghahraman ”

  1. Patricia Bremner 1
    22 January 2025 at 2:55 pm

    She has MS. A friend had that. Lesions on the brain. It is hit and miss whether each lesion is where it matters. It is terminal, so they do not need to kill her with unkindness. This baiting is to distract. Look for what should be front page news. 2% drop in GDP, Rents going up, Businesses failing all over the country, and front pages are about a sick woman? DB and Tui you are the bottom of the barrel.imo

    Reply
    • Darien Fenton 1.1
      22 January 2025 at 5:43 pm

      Yes ; with you there Patricia.

      Reply
    • Anne 1.2
      22 January 2025 at 6:04 pm

      Well said Patricia.

      Has any news outlet reported her MS diagnosis? Not to my knowledge. A significant portion of NZers – including many in journalism – are playing from the same songbook as the MAGA clowns. I despise them as much as their sick US counterparts.

      Edit: As for the police… they lost my support over a personal matter. Their actions in this case do not surprise me.

      Reply
    • Tiger Mountain 1.3
      23 January 2025 at 12:00 pm

      Some of the associated meds can cause behavioural change too. Have seen it myself when a professional woman friend of mine fell into a tiny side effect group for a steroid while in cancer treatment-boy did she act out in atypical ways.

      But really it is appalling how Gloriz is treated, while Tories keep name suppression till the end of all processes.

      Reply
  2. mickysavage 2
    22 January 2025 at 3:21 pm

    Well put.

    I always struggled with the decision not to give her diversion.

    FFS Cameron Slater got diversion for trying to hack the standard even though he had previous convictions for breaching suppression orders.

    And he had name suppression until the very end.

    This article by Jessica Williams is still funny and highlights his hypocrisy.

    But the different treatment still rankles.

    Reply
  3. Ed1 3
    22 January 2025 at 3:22 pm

    I hope many people complain to the advertising standards association – they will need a photograph of the thing being complained about. If a lot of people complain about the DB advertisement it may hopefully be seen as New Zealand wanting better and enforceable standards than the lack of standards being pushed by the haters and wreckers . . .

    Reply
  4. Ad 4
    22 January 2025 at 3:31 pm

    So sick to stroll across a political battlefield bayonetting the wounded.

    Reply
  5. tsmithfield 5
    22 January 2025 at 4:39 pm

    I am not a Greens supporter by any means. But, I tend to agree with the sentiment. The media should leave her alone, and respect her mental health.

    Reply
  6. ianmac 6
    22 January 2025 at 5:29 pm

    Great column Mountain Tui. Again.

    Reply
  7. Darien Fenton 7
    22 January 2025 at 5:47 pm

    I've been waiting for someone from the government to speak out about the Tui Billboard – women's affairs? ethnic affairs? police? justice? Someone. But turns out they don't give give a shit, so busy are they talking about growth and growth and such other bullshit. I always thought we had this thing innocent til proven guilty ; Golriz hadn't even been through the checkout. She wasn’t arrested; hasn’t been charged ; even supermarket are trying to talk it down. She had a bag in her trolley. So do we often because we have been taught to bring our own bags these days. This is sickening and thank you Mountain Tui for writing this ; I hope Golriz knows the support she has out here.

    Reply
  8. Christopher Randal 8
    22 January 2025 at 5:57 pm

    I thought that the police couldn't investigate shoplifting allegations unless the "victim" complained. The store said it wouldn't complain over such a small amount.

    Reply
    • Muttonbird 8.1
      22 January 2025 at 7:54 pm

      On beleaguered broadcaster, 1ZB, I listened to that absolute spanner filling in for the racist Heather Duplicity Allen interview the owner of Auror, the tech company retailers subscribe to to surveil and report retail crime to the police.

      The owner (someone Thompson) wouldn't speak about the Gharaman case but a couple of things were interesting:

      Access to the software is supposed to be only for the retailer and police (and Auror owners/employees, obviously. See below).

      Auror didn't claim not to interfere but didn't deny it (the question wasn't even asked).

      Reason I focussed on these two ideas is that considering Pak-n-Save didn't make a complaint but did upload the footage to Auror (perhaps this is automatic, I don't know) how did the police end up looking at that particular incident when no crime was committed and no report made?

      I find it very hard to believe given Police resources they happened on it by accident. They don't after all look at every single CCTV frame uploaded to Auror, do they??

      Most likely they were directed to it by some Zionist or Israeli supremacist who has access to the material and who wishes to completely destroy a high profile Palestinian activist like Golriz Gharaman, just like their parent country is in the process of destroying Palestine itself.

      Reply
      • Anne 8.1.1
        22 January 2025 at 8:43 pm

        Or a NAT/ACT politician who had been told about the incident whispered into the ear of a high ranking police officer… or arranged for some appropriate person to do the dirty deed for them.

        Five decades ago something similar happened to Colin Moyle. He received a hoax phone call which led him to a part of Wellington known to be frequented by homosexuals [homosexuality, as it was called then, was still illegal] and surprise surprise, the police turned up and he found himself in a police station being questioned for supposed homosexual activity. No charges were laid but lo and behold the PM, Rob Muldoon heard about it and spilt the beans in the debating chamber under privilege. Moyle was forced to resign from parliament.

        Reply
        • Tiger Mountain 8.1.1.1
          23 January 2025 at 8:48 am

          Yes that was a very dirty one, as was the “Sutch Affair”, dutifully documented by NZ Truth, not sure who supplied the photographs…

          Reply
          • Anne 8.1.1.1.1
            23 January 2025 at 10:42 am

            Dr Sutch was way ahead of his time. He could see the potential for trade deals with the then Soviet Union. He correctly surmised that trade and political ideology don't have to be synonymous with one another – something which is regarded as normal these days.

            Former senior politician, Warren Freer was decried when he tried to set up a trade deal with China around 60 odd years ago. He didn't end up being tried for treason [or whatever] but his own party [Labour] disowned him at the time. It was appropriate that his electorate successor in Mt. Albert, Helen Clark signed the first trade deal ever with China.

            Reply
  9. Mike the Lefty 9
    22 January 2025 at 7:01 pm

    There was plenty of creative editing going on in the "news" reports about it to make it look like it was new. I know how its done, I was a journalist myself many years ago and I can spot a work like this a mile off.

    I hope the NZME creative writers responsible for this latest character assassination are amongst the ones that have recently been told they are being sacked – it would be justice.

    Reply
  11. adam 11
    22 January 2025 at 10:34 pm

    So it's as I've been saying for a while – DIRTY POLITICS NEVER STOPPED!

    Our Tory scum just keep rolling on with this shit.

    Time to take the gloves off.

    seymour is a low life little scumbag of the first order – who eats his own smeg. You know it's the only thing that explains that shit eating grin of his.

    Reply
  12. Anne 12
    22 January 2025 at 10:38 pm

    Don't be too hopeful.

    I went through a period of surveillance and suspicion in the 1980s and the early1990s. It took me years to discover that most of it had been based on falsehoods supplied by a single individual. My career was ruined and aspects of my life took a big hit, yet the main culprit was never brought to justice despite having a direct link to politically motivated criminal activity occurring at the same time.

    Reply
    • Anne 12.1
      22 January 2025 at 11:01 pm

      Oops – a reply to Muttonbird @ 10.1

      Reply
    • adam 12.2
      22 January 2025 at 11:05 pm

      Anne reading about the type of malicious/misogynist bullshit that happened to you, makes me so mad.

      To many so called honorable people lie, cheat, and manipulate – with no consequences to them – then they get to gloat about the wholesale destruction to the peoples lives they lied about.

      Time to do something about this thug culture

      Reply
    • Muttonbird 12.3
      22 January 2025 at 11:35 pm

      Anne, I hear you. Even if the attention of the privacy commissioner doesn't help Golriz Gharaman on this occasion (it should) it will at least hopefully shine some light on the woeful practices of Auror and they relationship with an increasingly corrupt NZ police. Hopefully they are forced to close operations, or have customers flee, or at least have all employees vetted.

      These clowns seem like cowboys to me. It’s an illustration of how private interests erode public confidence, by definition.

      Reply
  13. powerman 13
    23 January 2025 at 8:48 am

    The callousness which has crept into the country is despicable. Does anyone else see a link between the cynical US produced TV and films we are bombarded with uless we have enough sense to turn them off. Seinfield, Two and A half Men, and others are full of callous take downs. And we have a POTUS who mimcs people with disabilitys. A long bow to draw maybe but these attitude wash on to others.

    Reply
  14. Populuxe 14
    23 January 2025 at 11:35 am

    It really doesn't get enough penetration in the mainstream that this was a smear from the vile and loathsome Leo Molloy with absolutely nothing to do with the supermarket.

    Reply
  15. Psycho Milt 15
    23 January 2025 at 4:47 pm

    These latest "shoplifting" claims are pretty good evidence of aggressive stalking of Ghahraman by right-wing loons, if nothing else. Pak'n'Save didn't accuse her of shoplifting, so where have the allegations come from? From "Vindictive, malicious, unscrupulous racists" would be my top pick.

    Reply
  16. Obtrectator 16
    24 January 2025 at 10:22 am

    The Post is at it again today in its print edition. Another non-story (with photo, of course).

    Reply
  17. mpledger 17
    24 January 2025 at 10:56 am

    I can imagine that if all your movements are being followed to cause harassment then you might put personal items (e.g. hair colouring, some medications) under cover to avoid increasing the harassment.

    It only becomes shop lifting when you walk out of the shop without paying. All people seem to be saying is that she hid items (in her shopping trolley!) not that she didn't pay for them.

    Reply

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