– You can not get my ham in Ham. You do not. No.
The President of the Storting laughs at the proposal.
We are on our way to the water Skinka in Drammensmarka. Here Masud Gharahkhani finds peace, and occasionally takes a bath. But not today with the photographer in tow. After all, the man is central in the work of regaining people’s trust in the elected representatives after the previous Storting president and several other politicians had to leave their posts after the much-discussed commuter housing scandal.
– DRAMMENSMARKA: – Is not it beautiful here, asks the President of the Storting.
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– How far is it to Ham?
– Return I think I spend an hour and a half. But there has been a little too little time to go hiking in the fields lately, so it is not certain that the shape is so …
We are interrupted by a gentle hiker:
– Hey Hey! A Storting president who first and foremost wants a trip to Drammensmarka on a Sunday. Then the country is well shot!
Great contrasts
– When I need time for myself, I go here. Then it happens that there are some tears. There have been a lot of emotions in me since I became President of the Storting.
– NUMBER TWO AFTER THE KING: In the formal ranking of the highest offices in Norway, the king comes first, then the President of the Storting. Photo: Marte Christensen
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The family is spread around the world, including the USA, Norway and the mother country Iran. When his grandfather in Iran died five years ago, Gharahkhani was one of the few from the family who arrived on time.
– It was quite special to get there. One we are very fond of, and so there were so few family members present. But I was there.
On his deathbed, he gave his grandfather a promise: to take care of his grandmother. It is a promise he has not been able to keep.
– My grandparents mean everything to me. But I know that if I go to Iran, it’s not safe. People like me, who stand for democracy and human rights, are being taken down there. And if something happens to me, it also affects my family here at home.
– A LOVELY MEMORY: Here are the grandparents from Iran visiting Skotselv in the early 90’s. Now the grandfather has passed away, and the grandmother is no longer in shape to take the long journey to Norway.
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Incitement against Muslims and politicians
Gharahkhani is concerned that democracy cannot be taken for granted here at home either. Bufdir and OsloMet recently published a report showing that Muslimness is increasing in Norwegian comment fields. At the same time, incitement, threats and hate speech against politicians have increased significantly.
– It’s pretty sad. If we are to have a vibrant democracy, we are dependent on many people participating in the debate. If people do not have the strength because of everything that comes with it, we lose a lot.
– What does it do to you to experience harassment and threats?
– In the beginning it affected me. It’s a little sad to say, but now I’m used to it. And then I have many around me who support me. Not everyone has it, and that’s why we have to stand up to it. We have a joint responsibility to deal with that shit, he says.
One of the topics Gharahkhani has chosen to have on the agenda when he fills the job calendar is precisely the fight against incitement and hate speech. On March 8, he invited female public debaters to a breakfast meeting on netiquette.
Persian mixture
– Like that, now we take such a proper country road, says Gharahkhani happy.
What he is aiming for is a path. We take off from the forest road.
Arriving at Skinka, we discover that there is still ice on the water. Maybe just as well that there will be no swimming.
– SKINKA: The President of the Storting has sat down to take a break by the favorite water Skinka in Drammensmarka. Here he often thinks of his grandparents and mourns that he can not keep the promise he made to his grandfather. Photo: Marte Christensen
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– WATER IN THE FACE: – It’s so refreshing. Try it too! Photo: Marte Christensen
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Gharahkhani brings out a thermos of coffee, two cups and a bag of figs and mulberries and pistachios.
– Persian nut mixture.
He reminisces about how little varied food it was possible to get in Norway when the family came as refugees from Iran. That was in 1987 and he was five years old.
– Fruits were apples and oranges. Toppings were cooked ham. Now we have everything. It is good.
He has a memory from the nine months he and his parents lived in the asylum reception center at Larkollen. He was served yogurt, and was not prepared for it to be sweet.
– It was absolutely awful! Now I like it, then, he chuckles.
If we are to believe the President of the Storting, he is good at cooking. Soon he will go home to his wife and son of nine to contribute to Sunday dinner. There will be Norwegian lamb with Persian marinade on the grill.
On the way back we pass three generations who have a picnic by a water.
– We are so proud of you! You are skilled! shouts the elder to the President of the Storting.
– GOOD MOOD: We meet more hikers. Gharahkhami talks to everyone. Also former mayoral candidates for the Conservative Party in Drammen, Fredrik A. Haaning (left).
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A rolemodel
A few days before our forest trip, a multicultural school class with eight-year-olds from the eastern edge of Oslo visited the Storting. On the way to the Storting gallery, one of the boys asked: – Can we see the president?
– GOT TO SEE THE PRESIDENT: The third-graders from Groruddalen are attending a meeting in the Storting hall. Photo: Marte Christensen
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– What does it mean to you that these children for for the first time in Norway’s history get to see a Storting president with a foreign background?
– I get many messages: “We are proud of you” and “this is great”, they write. I always answer that what we should be proud of is Norwegian democracy. That you may have been born in a completely different country, come here as a child on the run. That you can grow up in the village, train as a radiographer and end up as president of the Storting. That says a lot about Norwegian democracy. In Norway, we have the opportunity to participate regardless of our background, he says.
– “EIDSVOLL 1814” is painted by Oscar Wergeland and adorns the Storting hall where Gharahkhani has chaired weekly meetings since he took over as President of the Storting in November last year. Photo: Marte Christensen
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– At the same time, there are many who experience being discriminated against and therefore are not as positive to Norwegian society as you.
– I have been lucky, I have always said that. When we came to little Skotselva outside Drammen, we got a bonus grandmother. Pia was our neighbor and invited us in on Christmas Eve. I had a Norwegian teacher named Oddny, who worked extra with me so “he Masuden” would do a little better. I had the football team and the mission church – a community that looked after and took care of us.
Gharahkhani’s own upbringing experiences harmonize with what he experiences when he visits communities that have succeeded in integration: In addition to learning the language and getting a job, people must be seen and included in a community.
– We still have a way to go, he admits.
– 50 YEARS AGO HOMOPHILIA WAS CRIMINALIZED: Gharahkhani gives a speech during the celebration at Eidsvoll Square outside the Storting. Photo: Marte Christensen
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– HUMAN RIGHTS: – We must never forget those who took the lead, so that others will have the freedom we have now, says the President of the Storting. In the country he fled from as a child, there is still the death penalty for gays.
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– VIEW FROM THE OFFICE: Gharahkhani looks straight at the castle from his office in the Storting. Photo: Marte Christensen
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Grandma on facetime
The closest the president of the Storting gets to the grandmother in Iran now is when they talk in facetime.
– Then I see her. She’s still a good grandmother wondering what I’ve eaten for dinner. It is very cozy.
He caught his grandfather on his deathbed, but does he manage to see the 88-year-old grandmother again? She is too old and frail to take the long journey to Norway, and he can not travel to Iran.
– I have acknowledged that as long as the current regime in Iran rules, I probably will not do it, he says.
Special May 17th
On 17 May, the President of the Storting will, traditionally, stand on the Storting balcony and wave. And finally, after two years of pandemic, the children’s train will once again walk up Karl Johans gate and wave back.
– TEST WING: On 17 May, the suit will be replaced with the Eiker suit. Photo: Marte Christensen
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– I look forward! May 17 is one of the biggest days of the year for me!
At the same time, there is war in Europe, and Gharahkhani has recently visited Ukraine to show his support for their struggle:
– We were invited to May 8. On this day, both we and they mark freedom and democracy after World War II. While these are our rights, the Ukrainians are now fighting to maintain their independence and democracy.
On May 17, there will be refugees from Ukraine in the children’s train.
– When President Zelenskyj spoke about this in his speech to the Storting, I had to fight to hold back the tears.
Gharahkhani hopes they will feel as welcome and included as he did when he went on his first May 17 train at home in Skotselv.
– In many ways, it drives me that I have a baggage where I do not take freedom and democracy for granted. But it also arouses a lot of emotions in me. And I’m pretty sure that when I’m going to be out on the Storting balcony to greet May 17, a lot of those feelings will be there.
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