The stand-up comedian, writer and social debater Shabana Rehman has died – Dagsavisen

Rehman died on the morning of December 29, her brother confirmed on Facebook.

With humour, chronicles and books, as a participant in debates and organisations, she challenged authoritarian and entrenched mindsets. She fought for women’s rights, regardless of background, and for freedom of expression and openness. She used surprising means in a new way. She was praised for that, but she also experienced a lot of opposition, threats and incitement.

At just 23 years old, she stepped into the breach for open dialogue about sexual and social prejudices among Norwegians and Pakistanis. It attracted attention when she posed naked, with only the Norwegian flag applied as body paint, on the cover of Dagbladet Magasinet in January 2000.

In 2004, she was reported by Mullah Krekar for physical abuse, after luring him onto the stage and then lifting him. Krekar was furious, the case received international attention, but the report was dismissed.

With humor as a weapon

Rehman started as a columnist, first in VG in 1996 and later in Dagbladet, Aftenposten and Danish Dagbladet Information. In recent years, she was a columnist in Nettavisen. It was nevertheless as a comedian that she really became a public voice.

Rehman had strong opinions which she would convey with sharp humour.

She first tried to get someone else to perform her lyrics, but finally went on stage herself at Onkel Blå in Bærum in September 1999. In Aftenposten, she later told about how she, together with her elementary school friend, the comedian Zahid Ali, stood in front of the stage with cheat sheets and sweaty palms.

She became Norway’s first female stand-up celebrity with a multicultural background. On stage she could be as open as in her diary. She complained about how parents and society treat the next generation of immigrants: those who are treated by their parents according to rules from their home country, and who are not accepted by the Norwegian side as full-fledged Norwegians.

Tough years

Rehman was born in Karachi, as number four in a group of seven siblings. As a one-year-old, she came to Norway in 1977, and grew up in Holmlia in Oslo.

They were three sisters and four brothers who were initially brought up according to strict norms and rules by their Pakistani parents. At the same time, her father was very keen on integration, and that the children should succeed, become part of Norwegian society.

Shabana still questioned why there were different rules for girls and boys and rebelled against the expectations of her.

When she was 15, Rehman ended up in a youth home. Later, in the book “Blåveis – min vei ut av av volden” which was published in 2009, she talked openly about the tough years. Her childhood sweetheart and an employee of the institution where she lived mistreated and abused her. It wasn’t until she read in a police report that she had been mistreated that it really dawned on her that she was a victim of violence.

Strong reactions

After his stand-up debut, Rehman received praise from both Norwegians and immigrants. At the same time, there were many who reacted to the brashness. Rehman was subjected to harassment and threats. Some death threats were reported to the police, but Rehman did not make a big deal out of it. She continued to create headlines and debate.

The year after the “mulla lift” there was a culture shock during the opening of the film festival in Haugesund. Rehman first kissed Culture Minister Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, before she afterwards showed her bottom to the audience. There were new reactions. When 17 shots were fired at the Rehman family’s restaurant in Oslo, Shabana had enough. She moved to the United States.

– It wasn’t me who was controversial, it was the reactions that were controversial, Rehman wrote on his website later.

For freedom of expression

Shabana Rehman received many awards. Already after two years in the limelight, she was recognized when she received the Fritt Ord award in 2002. She shared it with Aslam Ahsan, and they received the award for building bridges between cultures. Rehman was praised for his courageous, powerful and innovative use of the free word. She directed her acceptance speech sarcastically at opponents and everyone who has put her down over the years.

– If it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t be standing here today, she said.

Throughout her career, she fronted weaker groups and advocated their cause. She was head of the Born Free Foundation from 2017, which worked for individual freedom, freedom of expression, and against a culture of honor and shame. In 2020, she was appointed as a member of the government’s freedom of expression commission.

In November 2022, she was presented with Norsk PEN’s Ossietzky prize for her exercise of freedom of expression in a “creative and sensational way” over several decades.

– Shabana Rehman has enriched the Norwegian public with humour, satire and wisdom, stated Norsk PEN.

Openness and disease

– You have to be authentic, Rehman said in a lecture about the stunts, the dramatic events and experiences that shaped and liberated her.

– Even though it can feel skinless and dangerous, we must dare to strip off the staff and tell about life as it is. Only then can we find solutions, whether in the family, cultural life, politics or business.

In January 2022, Rehman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The doctors in Norway told her that she had incurable pancreatic cancer with spread, that it could not be operated on. She was unlikely to live until 2022, and was told to call her family. With alternative treatment in Germany, a chemotherapy regimen that Norway does not offer, she got a little more time.

She chose to tell about the strong experiences and became a columnist for Nettavisen.

– I would like to share what my journey is like, so that if nothing else, it might create more understanding about what it is like to be seriously terminally ill in Norway and still have a desire to live with hope, she wrote.

Rehman was married twice, first to comedian Dagfinn Nordbø from 2003 to 2007 and then to NRK journalist Martin Gaarder from 2008 to 2021. In the middle of her life crisis, she fell in love with the farmer and artist Petter Simonsen.

On “Lindmo” on NRK in autumn 2022, she told how meeting love gave her a new view of hope.

– Hope is not a dream or an illusion, it is deeply connected to being human. When realism and optimism are linked in hope, you live. The doctors said that if you’re going to get well, a miracle has to happen, but every day is a miracle of love.

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