Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is doubling down on criticism of David Seymour, accusing the ACT leader of "overly sexualising" women after he posted an image of himself wearing a contentious t-shirt.
The garment depicted the silhouette of a naked woman wearing a cow's head, with the slogan 'Got Meat?'.
Ms Ghahraman says it was a "huge lapse of judgement" by Mr Seymour to wear one of the University of Auckland Meat Club's t-shirts while visiting the campus during O-Week.
Mr Seymour earlier defended himself from the criticism, claiming he never intended to offend anyone and the t-shirts had both men and women's bodies on them.
But Ms Ghahraman told Newshub the gender of the figure on the t-shirts doesn't make any difference.
"Let's not call anyone a piece of meat on campus, and let's not overly sexualise anyone. I think we all now know how this makes people feel, how it's belittling to women specifically," she said.
"We know almost every woman in our lives has experienced some form of sexual harassment, some form of sexual assault, and this kind of culture we've come to call toxic masculinity is contributing to that.
"We shouldn't have to put up with that in our places of study and work."
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Seymour said he didn't mean to cause offence, and that anyone that knew him would not "even entertain the idea [he was a misogynist] for a moment".
But Ms Ghahraman said it's not about what Mr Seymour's intentions were.
"It's about just stopping and having some self-awareness," she said.
"He's on campus, there are thousands of women joining this great university this week and they're all coming in and being faced with men wearing t-shirts with naked women, with cow's heads on them, comparing them to pieces of meat.
"I felt like that was something I would call him out on."
Mr Seymour took aim at Ms Ghahraman for her criticism of him, referencing her defence of male Iranian officials who had refused to shake hands with Kiwi female MPs.
"Golriz Ghahraman, who defends sexist men who won't even shake hands with women in New Zealand's elected Parliament, thinks that this the cause for moral outrage. Give us a break Golriz," he said.
"A member of Parliament who proudly defended war criminals, someone who thinks it's quite okay for women to be forced to wear the hijab in Iran, and she thinks a bunch of students wearing meat oriented t-shirts is a major issue? Give us a break, the woman's a joke."
Ms Ghahraman has previously discussed her work as an intern on the defence team for accused war criminal Joseph Nzirorera in Rwanda.
"It's very hard to work on a defence team, but it's completely necessary and it's necessary especially if you believe in human rights," she said.
In a recent opinion piece for Newshub, she said members of a visiting Iranian delegation who refused to shake hands with New Zealand female politicians did so as a sign of respect.
She said it was the flipside of the rule of the Hijab for Islamic women.
Newshub.
