As part of our series marking 50 years since the UN adopted the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees 1 NEWS sat down with New Zealand's first MP with a refugee background to hear about life after resettlement.
Q: What was life like for you when resettling in New Zealand?
A: "We arrived and we went to live in Kelston, which was the first place that I experienced diversity. Iran is diverse across this massive country, you know we've got Armenians and Kurds, various religions and whatever else, but it's never in that kind of intensive, you're all going to school together, and people are speaking Hindi at home, and people are speaking various Pacific languages and we’re eating different foods, and then you come together. So that was my first experience, but that made it really okay, to have just arrived, and to not know a lot of English, a lot of the kids had that experience from their own families.
And West Auckland is also a socio-economically diverse place, and we didn't have much at all and that was okay as well. So I do remember that it was quite a warm community, it was easy to just get on.
Some of the culture shock stuff, was things like people not wearing shoes. And people didn't know anything about us so they would say stuff like, 'did you have fridges in Iran', and we were like 'you're not wearing shoes!' So everyone's just learning about each other.
It was actually a really positive experience. One of the best things about it was that I just got to go into school in a class with my same age kids, so they didn't hold me back or anything. We weren't sure about that. But it meant that I could just learn English with the other kids and make friends. And I'm still friends with my very first (friend). I made friends with the blondest blue eyed little girl, and we’re still friends so it was positive."
Q: When did you truly feel like a Kiwi?
A: "I remember when I noticed that I was thinking in English, and you dream in this other language and you are suddenly like, 'oh, okay I've kind of shifted'.
And I did this thing, where, because I knew we were fleeing and we might never come back. I kind of sat down and memorised my bedroom in Iran, so I still have that memory and that kind of is, home in a way, but when the language changed in my mind I knew that I wasn't necessarily ever going to go back to Iran, and feel very Iranian again."
Q: What response did you get from people when you ran as a Green Party candidate?
A: "When I first announced I was running as candidate, it coincided with – Trump had just been elected, but it was the Muslim ban he introduced.
So I ended up getting this surge of support from everyone around the world going, 'thank god, every government's not going to go down that route'. But, also from around New Zealand I got a lot of people reaching out from different migrant communities, kind of going 'oh my god it's so amazing to us, that someone like us, could be in this position, like I can see that for my daughters now', or young women coming up to me at bus stops and saying 'It's so interesting' or 'cool' or whatever 'to have someone speaking about some of our issues, that's maybe experienced it.'
And I definitely can't speak on behalf of those communities at all, I'm just one person, but maybe it will mean more of us will go, 'oh actually, no, this is our country, we should take part', and then we'll get all of experiences forming policy and being part of the leadership in some way."
Q: You've become a face for refugees and asylum seekers in New Zealand this year, what's that been like?
A: "It was weird because I didn't want to have it be this tokenistic thing where it's like 'tick, we've got a refugee', because I can't speak on behalf of, I can't even speak on behalf of Iranians let alone all refugees, or anything like that.
But I did realise, especially with this outpouring of support I did realise that it's actually just my face, and just my story is important in and of itself. But it comes with so much responsibility, because as refugee issues come up and people who have voted Green, for that, to have me there.
They're looking to me to lead on those issues and be really strong on them, so it's a huge responsibility, I definitely feel it. I definitely feel like I need to work harder and harder.
Q: What kind of negative response have you had, is it disheartening to hear?
A: "I was getting so many violent threats, it was quite scary stuff if you read through it, I kind of tend to go- okay this is just online stuff. Don't read the comments.
But friends of mine who do read the comments, and I've got a friend who does some of the social (media)– vets messages and whatever - he's like 'It's really scary, how is this happening?'
Because it is talking about loading shot guns. And it is literally because – it's not just that you're a refugee, it's not just that you're from the so-called "Muslim world" but you're actually trying to take part in leadership, and that's extra threatening.
You know, it's okay if you're just sitting there being humble, but how dare you – especially it came about when I started to criticise the government. And I wasn't criticising the government as a refugee, or as a foreigner, I was criticising the government because I am a Green Party candidate in opposition, running in an election. But it was just unacceptable to some people that someone from my background would be able to criticise the New Zealand government.
It was disheartening because some of what I was speaking about was child poverty, and so it was weird to me that you would be more outraged about a "foreigner" pointing out child poverty in New Zealand, than the actual child poverty. The reality is – that's what we've got here, we're one of the worst in the OECD, and lets change that, I want the best for New Zealand, is what I was saying, but they were much more focused on who was saying it.
And that is disheartening, it's kind of worrying for democracy, we really need to break away from that kind of culture that if you love New Zealand you’ll just agree with whoever's in charge kind of thing, because that's kind of a race to the bottom."
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