Golriz Ghahraman

Golriz Ghahraman (born 1981) is a lawyer, author, and former New Zealand politician.

The former United Nations lawyer was a child asylum seeker, and became the first refugee elected to New Zealand's Parliament.

Ghahraman was born in Iran in 1981.

Her family lived in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city, where her father, an agricultural engineer, worked for the Ministry of Agriculture on the research and development of plant-based alternative fuels.

Her mother studied as a child psychologist but was ethically opposed to "psychologists having to pledge allegiance to a religion" so refused to sit the Islamic examinations required for her to practice and never worked as such.

Her father was Shia and her mother a Kurdish Sunni, though neither parent was religious.

In 1990, following the end of the Iran–Iraq War, nine-year-old Ghahraman and her family left Iran for Malaysia, ostensibly for a holiday.

From Malaysia they booked flights to Fiji, with a stopover in Auckland, where they sought political asylum and were accepted as refugees.

Her parents later set up a restaurant and a gift shop in Auckland and did not work in their earlier areas of expertise.

Ghahraman attended Auckland Girls' Grammar School.

She has a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Auckland, and a Master of Studies (MSt) degree in International Human Rights Law with Distinction from the University of Oxford.

Ghahraman entered legal practice in New Zealand working as a junior barrister specialising in criminal defence, describing it as "the most frontline human rights area of law you can work in practice in New Zealand; every day you are applying the Bill of Rights Act and you're dealing with unlawful detention, searches and discrimination."

Ghahraman worked as a lawyer for the United Nations as part of both the defence and prosecution teams with the tribunals in Rwanda, Cambodia and The Hague.

She had worked on tribunals such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, volunteering as an intern; and was assigned to the defence team.

Her work on the defence teams of accused and convicted war criminals such as Radovan Karadžić and Simon Bikindi, has caused her controversy, although she has claimed transparency throughout.

Ghahraman returned to New Zealand in 2012 and worked as a barrister, specialising in human rights law and criminal defence.

She appeared before the Supreme Court of New Zealand in a case which ultimately led to the police overhauling their rules about undercover operations.

Ghahraman was a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for the Green Party from 2017 to 2024, when she resigned amid shoplifting allegations.

Ghahraman was selected as a Green party list candidate in January 2017 for the 2017 general election.

On the provisional results on election night the Greens did not attain a high enough party vote for Ghahraman to enter Parliament, though a slight increase for the Greens in the special vote would see her allocated a seat.

After the Greens gained 0.5% of the vote in special votes she was duly elected to Parliament, in so doing becoming New Zealand's first refugee MP.

In November 2017, it was revealed that, along with prosecuting war criminals, Ghahraman had also volunteered as an intern for the legal defence team of accused war criminals such as Radovan Karadžić, as part of her work with the United Nations.

She defended her role in this work, claiming that her role was necessary to "maintaining a fair and robust trial process," that she was "proud to have been involved in that tradition of fair and transparent international justice," and that, given the choice, she would "do it again".

In early March 2019, Ghahraman submitted her Electoral Strengthening Democracy Bill that proposes lowering the country's mixed member proportional (MMP) threshold from 5% to 4%.

Both Winston Peters of the governing coalition member party New Zealand First and Simon Bridges of the opposition National Party criticised Ghahraman's bill as opportunistic.

Ghahraman has also advocated giving prisoners the right to vote and banning foreign donations to political parties as part of her bill.

During the 2020 New Zealand election that was held on 17 October, Ghahraman contested Mount Roskill, coming third place behind Labour's Michael Wood and National's Parmjeet Parmar.

She was re-elected to Parliament on the party list.

In mid-May 2022, Ghahraman's member's bill, the Electoral Strengthening Democracy Amendment Bill, was drawn from the ballot.

Her bill proposed several changes including allowing Māori voters to switch electoral rolls at any time, giving all prisoners the right to vote, reducing the electoral threshold for entering Parliament from 5 percent to 4 percent, and lowering the voting age to 16 years.

In early August 2022, Attorney-General David Parker expressed concern that the Bill's donation cap could potentially breach the right to free speech.

During the 2023 New Zealand general election, Ghahraman was re-elected to Parliament on the party list.

She also contested the Kelston electorate, coming third place with 3,777 votes.

In late November 2023, Ghahraman assumed the Green Party's foreign affairs, defence, trade, justice, human rights, women and ethnic communities, refugees, democracy and electoral system, and Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques spokesperson portfolios.

On 10 January 2024, Ghahraman stood aside from her portfolios after being accused of shoplifting at Scottie's Boutique in Ponsonby.

On 12 January, a second shoplifting allegation at Scottie's Boutique against Ghahraman was reported.

Police later confirmed that they were investigating the first shoplifting incident, which occurred in late December 2023.

Green co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson said the party was aware of the shoplifting allegations.

On 15 January, a Green party spokesperson said that Ghahraman had returned from an overseas trip to New Zealand that day.

That same day, police said they were investigating a third shoplifting allegation involving Ghahraman at the Wellington-based boutique store Cre8iveworx in October 2023.