New Zealand’s first refugee MP, Golriz Ghahraman, became emotional during her maiden speech in Parliament as she thanked her parents, who were in the public gallery, for their sacrifice.
Ms Ghahraman fled to New Zealand from Iran with her family as political refugees in 1990 when she was nine years old.
She has entered Parliament as a Green Party list MP.
After thanking those who voted for her and her campaign workers, Ms Ghahraman looked up at her parents in the gallery.
"My parents, both strong Iranian feminists, you lost everything," she said.
"You lost your friends, your family, your professions and your language because you weren't willing to raise a little girl in oppression. Thank you," she said, her voice breaking with emotion.
Earlier in her speech, Ms Ghahraman said she is "a child of revolutionaries" and remembered running to a basement and waiting as bombs and sirens went off during the Iranian revolution.
"Mostly I remember kids who stopped talking because of the shell shock," she said.
"I want us to amplify the voices in all cultures who speak of equality, above those who would silence them," Ms Ghahraman said.
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