Khamshajiny Gunaratnam survived the massacre on the island of Utøya
where Neo-Nazi Anders Breivik gunned down 69
Khamshajiny Gunaratnam, Sri Lakan-born deputy mayor in Oslo city council who has been a victim of online hate is speaking of her own experience of being subjected to this new form of harassment and racism.
As Norwegian politicians have united in an initiative against increasing online hate speech, she said “It is a huge problem. We have seen that it is often directed at young girls, and it is even worse if they are from a minority background,” Gunaratnam told NRK (Norwegian TV and broadcasting company).
Hate speech is used online in many different forums and ‘No Hate Speech’ movement is widely gaining popularity in many European countries and the Norwegian edition was launched early this year. Hate speech is also seen as a mobilizing factor for violence and radicalization. All the parties in Oslo’s city council are supporting a joint statement against online harassment of the city’s politicians.
Gunaratnam told the broadcaster she was the target of online hate after being named as a deputy spokesperson in the council in 2015. “The day I became deputy spokesperson, the messages flooded in. But what is worse than being a politician subjected to online hate is that other people see us [being abused online] and think again about saying what they think. That is a huge problem for democracy,” she said.
Gunaratnam came to Norway from Sri Lanka at the age of three. On 22 July 2011, when she was 23, she attended a Workers’ Youth League Camp on the island of Utøya where Anders Breivik gunned down 69 people. She swam 500 metres across the Tyrifjorden Lake to survive as bullets struck the water around her
Oslo Municipality filed a report with police earlier this year after environmental and urban planning committee leader Lan Marie Nguyen Berg received several threatening messages. Nguyen Berg’s father, a Vietnamese, has been living in Oslo from 1968 and she was born in Norway. Her mother is Norwegian.
“It is important here that although we are speaking out against hateful messages against me or Lan for example, that does not mean you cannot disagree with us. You should be able to put forward your viewpoints in a constructive and civilized manner,” Gunaratnam said.
“We have seen with the #metoo campaign that harassment and sexually inappropriate behaviour destroys working environments. So it is good to know that we in the city council are standing together and supporting each other,” she said.
On 22 July 2011, when Gunaratnam was 23, she attended a Workers’ Youth League Camp on the island of Utøya where Anders Breivik who is anti-Islam and blames feminism for creating a European “cultural suicide”, gunned down 69 people. Gunaratnam swam 500 metres across the Tyrifjorden Lake to survive as bullets struck the water around her.
Gunaratnam, who is popularly known as Khamzy, was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, and came to Norway with her parents when she was three years old. On 27 March 1988, and at the age of 28 she was elected as the youngest Oslo Deputy Mayor in history. She has represented the Labour Party in Oslo City Council where she is committed to political issues that contribute to more democracy, community involvement, and transparency.
Her parents were part of the Tamil diaspora who worked in the fishing industry in the north of Norway and they relocated to Oslo a few years after arriving in the country so that Gunaratnam and her brother could study at the Tamil school.
After joining the Tamil Youth Organisation in Oslo, she met governing mayor Raymond Johansen who encouraged her to be involved in politics. She studied social geography at the University of Oslo.
