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.
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