Kamzy Gunaratnam (born Khamshajiny Gunaratnam, Tamil: கம்சாயினி குணரத்தினம் (Kamcāyiņi Kuṇarattiņam) in Jaffna, Sri Lanka on 27 March 1988) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. She served as Oslo’s deputy mayor from 2015 to 2021.[1] Gunaratnam was nominated in second place on the Labour Party's general election list for Oslo, in the 2021 parliamentary elections for the Storting, which she won.[2]
During an interview with Guardian journalist Lauren Razavi two months after she was elected, Gunaratnam described her political approach: "The only way we can move society forward is by disagreeing, discussing and coming up with new solutions to the problem we're facing. We need as many people as possible to be involved to realise the best solutions for our city and our country. In 10 or even 100 years, we have to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror and tell our children and grandchildren that we took these decisions and we're proud to have done what we've done."[10]
Gunaratnam is known for her work promoting ethnic, political and religious diversity. She is an advocate against online hate speech online hate speech, which she also herself has been exposed to.[11]
On 18 March 2023, she announced that she was resigning from her position in the Oslo Labour Party during the party's annual meeting. She cited a need for renewal within the leadership. At the same she expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership being predominantly white, using the term "blendahvit", which many regard as a racialslur, when describing the leadership.[12][13]
Response to European refugee crisis
Speaking to Guardian journalist Lauren Razavi in December 2015, Gunaratnam said: "I believe every country should take their responsibility. There was a time when Norwegian people flew over the Atlantic to the United States because of the situation in Norway. Today people see Norway as a great place to be, and we should feel honoured by that."[10]
Background
Gunaratnam was born in Sri Lanka and came to Norway as a refugee when she was three years old. Her parents were Tamil refugees who worked in the fishing industry in the north of Norway, though they relocated to Oslo a few years after arriving in the country so that Gunaratnam and her brother could go to a Tamil school.[10]
After joining the Tamil Youth Organisation in Oslo, Gunaratnam met governing mayor Raymond Johansen who encouraged her to get involved with politics, which she did. She was subsequently banned from returning to Sri Lanka as a result of her engagement with politics in Norway.[10] She later studied social geography at the University of Oslo.[14] She officially took over the first name Kamzy in October 2018, a name she has for long been known as in Norway.[citation needed]
On 22 July 2011, when Gunaratnam was aged 23, she attended a Workers' Youth League Camp on the island of Utøya, where Anders Behring Breivik committed a massacre that killed 69 people. Gunaratnam swam 500 metres across the Tyrifjorden Lake to survive as bullets struck the water around her. Breivik was later, as one of the many charges, found guilty and sentenced for her attempted murder.[8][10][15][16]
^Massacre in Norway : the 2011 terror attacks on Oslo and the Utøya Youth Camp. Lincoln : Potomac Books, An imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, [2014], page 23, 138, 153, 162, 164, 216
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