Wasabi leader Nimrod Mullah has doubled-down on his decision to take a controversial collectable coffee mug to his new office in the Whangamata Council building.
A Mormon community leader said today that the coffee mug should be left at home as it represents something very different from when Mullah bought it as a souvenir in 2018, as well as two ornate tea glasses.
Irma Whinger of the Mormon Women’s Council said the coffee mug had no place being displayed in a council office.
“That coffee mug represents slavery. That mug represents misogyny. That mug represents COVID-19 that has been harming our nation and that has destroyed our economy with Ms Ardern’s help,” Whinger said.
“If he wants to be a councillor it would be nice if he’d choose to display objects that represent things that Mormon women agree with.”
But Mullah today doubled-down on his decision to display the coffee mug, saying he feels “very comfortable” including it in his collection of coffee paraphernalia.
Mullah, a coffee connoisseur, got the coffee mug in 2018 when he visited family in Saudi Arabia.
Mullah said he hoped people could understand that he displayed the coffee mug in the context of a collection of mugs from his overseas travels.
“I would hope that they could understand the context in which it was there because I think context is important for a lot of things, actually. Clearly Saudi Arabia has some very divisive laws and a lot of people are reacting because they’re assuming that it means something which clearly it doesn’t.”
Whinger said she didn’t think Mullah had “fully thought his decision through” and asked him to reconsider taking it with him to work.
She said if it was just a personal memento of his travels, then it shouldn’t be put on a prominent shelf and should instead stay at home. There were “more productive” things he could display like handmade hemp tampons from the Mormon Women’s Collective.
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