When I first heard about Golriz Ghahraman it was from Nick announcing that she was the first refugee to enter the New Zealand Parliament. Her family had fled Iran when she was nine and resettled here.
The next I heard of her was when a scandal broke that she had willingly volunteered to serve on the defense team of those accused of atrocities in the Rwandan genocide.
Two damning photographs were also made public. One showed a grinning Ghahraman standing next to Simon Bikindi who was later convicted of inciting genocide. The other shows a still grinning Ghahraman seated next to the Rwandan defense team. (Everyone else had to good sense to let the seriousness of the matter reflect in their facial expressions.)
The scandal was noteworthy because Ghahraman was a Green party MP whose profile had extolled her virtue as a human rights advocate.
In fact, any article written on her before the information came out was suspiciously bereft of any mention of her stint with the Rwandan defense team.
The article on her in the November issue of Law Talk was one long humble brag. She went to Oxford and loved justice. Refugees, oppressed persons, unfortunates and down trodden individuals were her life, etc.
Her twitter feed features a series of photographs in which she is always the focal point. Around her are the human props people she lives to serve.
When called out on her dishonesty she responded that anyone could learn of the defense work if they just scrolled down to the bottom of her LinkedIn profile where it was noted in an easy-to-miss location.
As for the misrepresentation on the Green's website she was happy to let everyone think that it was an oversight on the part of the party, not herself.
I volunteered for the campaign of local Labour candidate Tony Condon and I helped him write and edit his own background story. Once complete it was sent to the moderators and posted on Labour's official website.
I'm sure this wasn't the case with Ghahraman and it's only an awkward coincidence that her information wasn't corrected until after the elections when she was promoted to MP from the party's list.
Her response to the fallout has been to say that the criminally accused are entitled to a defense.
At first glance this seems like a difficult but necessary truth but it is in fact, a red herring.
Ghahraman makes it seem like she was the only person brave enough to enable the accused to have their day in court. In fact, the accused had a team of lawyers and Ghahraman volunteered to go to the dark side and help out.
With or without her, the trial would have gone on with a competent defense team.
The decision to grin from ear to ear while posing with a man accused of "inciting genocide" was also entirely voluntary and in no way necessary to the process of justice.
Recently, a blogger pointed out Ghahraman's problematic claim that she remembers the bombs falling around her during her time in Iran. The blogger noted that her hometown of Mashhad was more than 1000 miles away from Tehran and was not bombed during the war.
Her huffy response was that she never said it was but that she was often sent to visit her family in Tehran during school holidays.
So, war broke out, bombs were falling and Golriz' parents who had enough sense to flee Iran still thought was okay to repeatedly send her to the kill zone to visit family.
Seems totally legit.
As a feminist I am always happy to see women doing good things and helping others.
As a person with a low tolerance for dishonest bullshit I am always angry when people like Ghahraman try to get away with being morally repugnant.
Once, during my time with the Coast Guard I was tasked with helping a young woman who turned out to be a narcissist and compulsive liar. In retrospect I remember the way her eyes searched my face when she was speaking to me. At first I thought it was due to her sincerity of feeling. Later I realized she was scanning my face to see if I had caught on to her lies.
Even now, diligent reporters could be checking to see if Ghahraman was actually enrolled at Oxford.
I'm sure whatever they come up with will be disavowed and the responsibility of knowing will be put back on the general public.
If only we had read the fine print in some obscure document...it was right there the whole time!
*For informative and well-written stories about the political turmoil and war in Iran, I suggest reading anything by Marjane Satrapi. My favorite will always be the graphic novel "Persepolis."
The next I heard of her was when a scandal broke that she had willingly volunteered to serve on the defense team of those accused of atrocities in the Rwandan genocide.
Two damning photographs were also made public. One showed a grinning Ghahraman standing next to Simon Bikindi who was later convicted of inciting genocide. The other shows a still grinning Ghahraman seated next to the Rwandan defense team. (Everyone else had to good sense to let the seriousness of the matter reflect in their facial expressions.)
The scandal was noteworthy because Ghahraman was a Green party MP whose profile had extolled her virtue as a human rights advocate.
In fact, any article written on her before the information came out was suspiciously bereft of any mention of her stint with the Rwandan defense team.
The article on her in the November issue of Law Talk was one long humble brag. She went to Oxford and loved justice. Refugees, oppressed persons, unfortunates and down trodden individuals were her life, etc.
Her twitter feed features a series of photographs in which she is always the focal point. Around her are the
When called out on her dishonesty she responded that anyone could learn of the defense work if they just scrolled down to the bottom of her LinkedIn profile where it was noted in an easy-to-miss location.
As for the misrepresentation on the Green's website she was happy to let everyone think that it was an oversight on the part of the party, not herself.
I volunteered for the campaign of local Labour candidate Tony Condon and I helped him write and edit his own background story. Once complete it was sent to the moderators and posted on Labour's official website.
I'm sure this wasn't the case with Ghahraman and it's only an awkward coincidence that her information wasn't corrected until after the elections when she was promoted to MP from the party's list.
Her response to the fallout has been to say that the criminally accused are entitled to a defense.
At first glance this seems like a difficult but necessary truth but it is in fact, a red herring.
Ghahraman makes it seem like she was the only person brave enough to enable the accused to have their day in court. In fact, the accused had a team of lawyers and Ghahraman volunteered to go to the dark side and help out.
With or without her, the trial would have gone on with a competent defense team.
The decision to grin from ear to ear while posing with a man accused of "inciting genocide" was also entirely voluntary and in no way necessary to the process of justice.
Recently, a blogger pointed out Ghahraman's problematic claim that she remembers the bombs falling around her during her time in Iran. The blogger noted that her hometown of Mashhad was more than 1000 miles away from Tehran and was not bombed during the war.
Her huffy response was that she never said it was but that she was often sent to visit her family in Tehran during school holidays.
So, war broke out, bombs were falling and Golriz' parents who had enough sense to flee Iran still thought was okay to repeatedly send her to the kill zone to visit family.
Seems totally legit.
As a feminist I am always happy to see women doing good things and helping others.
As a person with a low tolerance for dishonest bullshit I am always angry when people like Ghahraman try to get away with being morally repugnant.
Once, during my time with the Coast Guard I was tasked with helping a young woman who turned out to be a narcissist and compulsive liar. In retrospect I remember the way her eyes searched my face when she was speaking to me. At first I thought it was due to her sincerity of feeling. Later I realized she was scanning my face to see if I had caught on to her lies.
Even now, diligent reporters could be checking to see if Ghahraman was actually enrolled at Oxford.
I'm sure whatever they come up with will be disavowed and the responsibility of knowing will be put back on the general public.
If only we had read the fine print in some obscure document...it was right there the whole time!
*For informative and well-written stories about the political turmoil and war in Iran, I suggest reading anything by Marjane Satrapi. My favorite will always be the graphic novel "Persepolis."
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