New Zealand has just lost one of its most stylish politicians after shoplifting allegations were made against her by two of the country’s high-end fashion stores. The Iranian-born Golriz Ghahraman, who had just begun her third term as a high-profile Green party MP, today announced she will be standing down from parliament with immediate effect.
In her resignation statement, Ghahraman said her mental health has been ‘badly affected by the stresses relating to my work’, leading her to ‘act in ways that are completely out of character’. Although she did not address the allegations in any detail, she said she took ‘full responsibility for my actions which I deeply regret’. A touch unconvincingly, the Green leader James Shaw sought to assign some of the blame for Ghahraman’s behaviour on incessant threats of violence, and even death threats, that she had reportedly regularly received ‘since the day she was elected’.
Since October, Ghahraman has been a political byword for some of the local opposition to Israel’s assault on Hamas
Shortly before today’s announcement, two detectives visited her home in Auckland. It was there in the city that two of the alleged incidents took place at Scotties Boutique, a swish outlet where women’s dresses can fetch anything up to £3,500. Security footage from the same outlet and shared by the local media appears to show her lifting a designer handbag.
A third allegation has been made by another clothing retailer, Cre8tiveworx, in Wellington, claiming Ghahraman pinched a ‘substantial value of goods’ from its store as well. Presumably the incident was beyond disappointing for the Greens, who would have had no choice than to give her the boot in the event of a conviction in court.
All of the alleged offences appear to have taken place in the past few months, beginning shortly after the country’s recent general election in October. The election saw the Greens solidify their third-party status with 15 seats in the 123-member parliament after a campaign in which the issue of soaring retail crime loomed large.
Coincidentally, perhaps, the same period has been one of heightened public visibility for the lawyer, who until this week was the party spokeswoman on justice, trade and foreign affairs. Since early October, Ghahraman has been a political byword for some of the most strident local opposition to Israel’s ‘unprecedented’ assault on Hamas, routinely turning up to public protests with a keffiyeh draped over the natty designer outfits that have now bought her such unintended political grief.
The disconnect between Ghahraman’s burnished accolades as a lawmaker and newfound reputation as an alleged shoplifter has been disproportionate by local standards. Still, it’s not as if any of New Zealand’s political parties have lacked similar episodes in the recent past.
A justice minister in the previous Labour party-led government, Kiri Allan, resigned her position after crashing a vehicle while driving above the legal alcohol limit and refusing to accompany coppers back to the station. Members of the conservative National party-led government have not been without their issues either. Most recently there was the case of a youngish law-and-order stalwart Sam Uffindell, who made much of the need to punish violent offenders. Shortly after he became an MP, however, it emerged that he had escaped legal repercussions as a student after he thumped a much younger pupil at his boarding school, allegedly with an unscrewed bed leg.
The Greens are slightly noteworthy, however, for effectively being the diversity, equity and inclusion wing of New Zealand politics, pulling out the stops to ensure ethnic minorities are particularly well represented in their ranks. Ghahraman, whose family settled in New Zealand after claiming refugee status in 1990, was the first female with a Middle Eastern background ever to be sworn into office as an MP. She was also one of the first of any political stripe to enter national politics with a law degree from Oxford.
Other elements of Ghahraman’s back story have landed her in hot water before now, in particular duelling narratives over the time she spent after Oxford working as an intern for the United Nations with the tribunals in Cambodia, The Hague and Rwanda. In the case of the latter, her party’s website praised her work in helping ‘restore communities after war and human rights atrocities’, while failing to disclose – if it even realised – that she worked for Rwanda’s defence.
It’s yet to be seen whether she will need a defence team to handle her latest problems. The police say they are continuing to investigate the allegations. A final decision in the increasingly strange case of the snappily dressed parliamentarian still awaits.
Comments