Shamim Aslani

Guest writer

Shamim Aslani is a Māori (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa) and Persian writer and social media manager from Auckland, New Zealand. She is currently based in Melbourne, Australia. Her passions are human rights, social and digital media, and challenging colonialist narratives.

Shamim Aslani grew up in Aotearoa in a home suffused with Persian culture. (Photos: supplied; Getty images / Image design: Archi Banal)

The seven dollar fruit of paradise: dreaming of Iran from West Auckland

I always wanted to meet children with names like mine. But we never went back to Iran.

By Shamim Aslani | 1st October, 2022

Christchurch, March 2019 (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

My mother is Māori. My father is Iranian. I can tell you what New Zealand is

I implore New Zealanders to centre the victims, to examine our past, to understand that for many of us, this attack was more of a 'when' and not an 'if'

By Shamim Aslani | 25th March, 2019