Shabana Rehman Gaarder ( ur, شبانہ رحمان; 14 July 1976 – 29 December 2022) was a Pakistani-born Norwegian stand-up comedian, writer, and columnist. Using her sense of shocking humour on stage and in newspaper columns, she was a controversial voice in discussions on immigration and integration of Muslims in Norway, which has resulted in her persona becoming a subject in itself, which was often referred to as the "Shabana debate".

Early life

One of seven children,Shots fired at Pakistani-born comic’s Oslo restaurant
'' Daily Times'', 25 August 2005 Rehman moved with her family to Norway in 1977. Raised as a Muslim, she later identified as a

freethinker Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...

Professional career

Rehman was active in several arenas and was devoted to breaking taboos and creating more openness. Since the early 2000s in general, she urged Muslim immigrants to embrace Western progressive values such as human rights and individual freedom, and that especially women should have the choice to be whoever they want to be, and to do with their own bodies as they please. Liberals sometimes complained about her apparent insensitivity towards immigrant, Muslim attitudes, while conservative Muslims claim that Shabana 'denigrates their religion'. Shabana has alleged that she received death threats, primarily from young immigrants. Rehman started her career as a columnist in '' VG'' in 1996 and debuted as a

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...

in 1999.Standup comedian and writer Shabana Rehman in New York
She later started working as a columnist for ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newsp ...

'' in 2000 and regularly wrote for newspapers and magazines. Rehman received international publicity and has been interviewed by ''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

'' and the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Her shows have played for full houses in Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. She was fluent in Norwegian, Urdu and English, and has performed in German. In 2006, Shabana joined the American Comedy Institute in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Debate

These are some of the events that have created debate around Rehman's persona. In

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

it is referred to as the "Shabana debate". She had police protection. Anthropologist

Marianne Gullestad Marianne Gullestad (28 March 1946 – 10 March 2008) was a Norwegian social anthropologist. Gullestad grew up in Bergen, took her magister degree in social anthropology from the University of Bergen in 1975 and her dr. philos. in 1984. Her t ...

accused Rehman of reinforcing stereotypes about Muslims, and making Norwegians think it's ok to discriminate against immigrants. *2000 – Posed nude on the cover of ''Dagbladet'' with the

Norwegian flag The national flag of Norway ( nb, Norges flagg; nn, Noregs flagg; ) is red with a navy blue Scandinavian cross fimbriated in white that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style ...

painted on her, saying "I take my clothes off to provoke the authoritarians in order to expose them." She simultaneously also posed in traditional Pakistani clothing, explaining that both identities were external to her and that she alone could choose what to be. *27 April 2004 - Rehman was granted enormous publicity both in national and international press after lifting

Mullah Krekar Najmuddin Vahid Faraj Ahmad ( ku, نەجمەدین وەحید فەرەج ئەحمەد, July 7, 1956), better known as Mullah Krekar ( ku, مه‌لا کرێکار), is an Iraqi Kurdish Sunni Islamic scholar and militiant who was the founder and f ...

. The event resulted in a complaint to the police but was later closed with the reasoning: 'there is currently no reasonable ground for the public to search for perpetrations that the public should persecute'. Her own reason for doing this stunt was: A person that can be lifted is not that dangerous. *19 March 2005 - In a

commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

, ''Fødemaskinens fødselsarv'' (Translated: The birth heritage of the breeding machine) she talked openly about her own abortion. *21 August 2005 - Rehman was invited to the opening of the

Norwegian International Film Festival The Norwegian International Film Festival ( no, Den norske filmfestivalen) is a film festival held annually in Haugesund, Norway. The festival goes back to 1973. In 1985, the Amanda award was instituted. The Amanda is awarded every year at the fe ...

and was granted huge press attention after kissing the then cultural minister of Norway

Valgerd Svarstad Haugland Valgerd Svarstad Haugland (born 23 August 1956) is a Norwegian teacher, politician and civil servant. She was leader of the Christian Democratic Party in Norway from 1995 to 2004. She was Minister of Children and Family Affairs from 1997 to 20 ...

(Haugland represents the

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

(KrF) of Norway and has worked extensively towards gay rights). She also flashed her naked bottom saying "I want to show that in Norway, you can do such things without being lynched or arrested." *25 August 2005 - Shots were fired at a restaurant owned by Rehman's sister.

Personal life and death

Rehman married writer Dagfinn Nordbø in 2003, the two having initially met on the stand-up circuit in 1999. Tabloid newspaper ''

'' listed the couple among the country's most influential opinion shapers.Nice Witch of the North
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', 22 August 2004 After two years of marriage the couple split up as Rehman was moving to the United States for studies. Then in August 2007 the couple announced that they were divorcing though still remaining friends. In 2008 she married Martin Gaarder, a journalist with the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

. Rehman died from

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

on 29 December 2022, at the age of 46.

Awards

*2001 -

Lions Clubs International The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is an international non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, by Melvin Jones. It is now headquartere ...

award *2002 -

Fritt Ord Award Fritt Ord Award consists of two prizes awarded by the Fritt Ord Foundation (''Stiftelsen Fritt Ord''). Two prizes are awarded in support of freedom of speech and freedom of expression; the Fritt Ord Award ( no, Fritt Ords pris) and the Fritt O ...

(Free Word Award) *2022. Ossietzky Award

References

External links

Shabana's homepage
(Norwegian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaarder, Shabana Rehman 1976 births 2022 deaths Former Muslim critics of Islam Former Muslims turned agnostics or atheists Norwegian dramatists and playwrights Pakistani emigrants to Norway Norwegian former Muslims Norwegian human rights activists Norwegian women comedians Norwegian women writers Norwegian women dramatists and playwrights Norwegian critics of Islam Deaths from pancreatic cancer