The Auckland that Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman found herself in as a nine-year-old was starkly Pākehā – to the point that she assumed Māori must be refugees, too. Ghahraman’s memoir, Know Your Place, is out this week and opens with a tense recounting of her family’s flight from Iran in 1990. Parts of this … Read more
Green MP and former refugee Golriz Ghahraman was there last night when the former Manus Island detainee and acclaimed writer arrived in New Zealand. Last night, quietly and without fanfare a small group made up of human rights activists, literary folk, and just two journalists, came together at Auckland Airport to welcome Behrouz Boochani to … Read more
History has shown us time and again how atrocity begins with cheap opportunistic hate speech against minorities. It has to stop in New Zealand, now, said refugee and MP Golriz Ghahraman in a speech at the Aotea Square rally on Saturday. Below, an edited transcript E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga karangatanga maha. … Read more
In this edited version of her speech at the Hamilton Press Club last Friday, Green MP Golriz Ghahraman recounts her journey from a childhood in Iran to becoming the first refugee elected to the NZ parliament, and why identity is at the heart of democracy Being a Middle Eastern woman is a strangely over-burdened birth … Read more
If we’re serious about our commitment peace, we shouldn’t be hosting a ‘forum’ sponsored by a giant arms manufacturer, and we shouldn’t have troops involved in illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, argues Green MP Golriz Ghahraman Last week, as harrowing details emerged of the targeted murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Donald Trump provided … Read more
When the US is ripping children from the arms of their parents and throwing them into cages, we are firmly at the point in history where future generations might ask, ‘what would I have done?’ writes the Greens’ human rights spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman. We live at a moment in global history when the world’s most powerful state … Read more
The campaign launched by the US with France and UK is a breach of international law. These bombs will kill and maim more people, bringing irrevocable suffering to an already traumatised people, writes Green MP Golriz Ghahraman The harrowing reality of Syria’s war, with chemical weapons, a trapped civilian population and blocked UN security council, … Read more
Instead of backing US bombs in Syria and feeding perpetual war, we should be applying our energy to the underlying issues, writes the Iran-born human rights lawyer and Green candidate Golriz Ghahraman. I lived under American (and American sponsored) missiles for the first eight years of my life. Every day since Donald Trump was elected president I’ve … Read more