New Zealand lawmaker resigns after shoplifting allegations

A New Zealand lawmaker quit her job on Tuesday after allegations emerged that she shoplifted from two clothing stores. These actions, she said, were caused by stress that was affecting her mental health.

“I fell short. I'm sorry,” MP Golriz Ghahraman said in a statement on Tuesday. “The best thing for my mental health is to resign as an MP.”

Ms Ghahraman, 43, a former United Nations human rights lawyer originally from Iran, rose to prominence when she became the first refugee to be sworn in as a member of the country's parliament in 2017.

Allegations of shoplifting appeared in the New Zealand news media this month. Some reports also published a CCTV video showing Ms Ghahraman taking a handbag from a clothing store. Leaders of her party, the centre-left Green Party, confirmed that police were investigating events that news reports claimed took place last year in the cities of Auckland and Wellington.

Ms Ghahraman, who made no mention of shoplifting in her statement, said she could not explain her behavior because it was “not rational in any way,” and said after medical evaluation: “I understand that I am not doing well.” She added that a mental health professional she interacted with said her behavior was consistent with “recent events that triggered extreme stress responses” and related to past trauma.

James Shaw, a leader of the Green Party, said Ms Ghahraman had been subjected to ongoing threats of sexual violence, physical violence and death since the day she was elected, and that there had been ongoing police investigations into these threats. She was exposed to higher levels of stress than most lawmakers, Mr. Shaw said at a news conference on Tuesday.

During her career, Ms Ghahraman had promoted the rights of refugees and migrants and worked to end New Zealand's military deployment in the Middle East to refocus the work of the country's armed forces on the climate crisis. said the Green Party. In 2020, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Most recently, she had expressed her support for the Palestinian people, and wore a traditional kaffiyeh scarf in Parliament.

“Ms Ghahraman has worked tirelessly for her communities,” Mr Shaw and Marama Davidson, another party leader, said in a joint statement. “Nothing detracts from that work.”