I thought this was incredibly fucked up. Parliament seems like a pretty toxic workplace, but put constant threats in too of that and its not hard to see how it could affect a person.
Shaw said that Parliament was a stressful place for anybody.
"However, Golriz herself has been subject to pretty much continuous threats of sexual violence, physical violence, death threats since the day she was elected to Parliament and so that has added a higher level of stress than is experienced by most Members of Parliament.
“And that has meant, for example there have been police investigations into those threats almost the entire time that she has been a Member of Parliament, and so obviously if you’re living with that level of threat in what is already quite a stressful situation then there are going to be consequences for that,” Shaw said.
I cared less about this story and more about the attention that it generated. New Zealand has an extremely feminine culture, we care too much about people and what they do, what they look like, or how they are coping emotionally. The story only serves as a distraction from numerous failures which Parliament is responsible for, and seeks to humanise a group of people (Members of Parliament) that are largely predatory and corrupt.
Watching the reaction to this story has been fascinating, it’s almost like the stages of grief. First, it was unfounded accusations, then wait and see, then pointing out that the Wellington store owners were anti vaxxers, and finally making every possible excuse for her actions.
She’s had very different treatment to what someone on the other side of the aisle would get.
It’s not excusing. I haven’t seen anyone, anywhere say she shouldn’t have resigned, just noting the shame it is and how the extreme pressure of receiving constant credible (based on the statement about police investigating threats pretty much the whole time she was an MP) threats to her safety was likely a contributing factor.
Yeah, I do think the other side of the house gets different treatment. Women from labour and greens seem to have been particularly targeted disproportionately by death threats and general vitriol, and effectively driven out of Parliament either ultimately by their own choosing (Ardern, Mahuta) or appearing to have some sort of mental break from the pressure and doing something sackable and their position becomes untenable (Allan, Ghahraman).