To be given a funeral paid for by the state is one of the highest honours that can be bestowed upon a citizen, alas, it can only be appreciated by relatives, friends and admirers since it takes place post-mortem. In Norway, the practice was first established in 1881, and the government has been quite tight in honouring citizens with such an honour, on average less than once per year. Among those who have been honoured, there are very few women, reflecting the patriarchal world in the past. Some women fighting for gender equality have been honoured, and a couple fighting for samesex relationships. Only one Sami from the ethnic Norwegian community has been given the honour and only two Jews have. Until this week, there had not been a single person with an immigrant background who had been honoured with a state funeral. Last Tuesday, Shabana Rehman, a comedian and public social debater, was honoured with a state funeral held in the beautiful Oslo City Hall, otherwise also used for the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony and other big official functions. The ceremony was organized by the Humanist Ethical Society as requested by Shabana’s family. After the ceremony, the actual burial took place in private in the presence only of the immediate family and close friends. For security and privacy reasons, the location has not been revealed. The large and almost two-hour-long ceremony in the Oslo City Hall took place in the presence of the Speaker of Parliament (in Norway called President) Masud Gharakhani, HRH Crown Prince Haakon, Minister of Culture and Equality Anne Trettebergstuen, Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion Marte Mjøs Persen, Mayor of Oslo Marianne Borgen, and several other dignitaries, members of the indigenous and immigrant communities, guests from home and abroad, the media, culture, human rights organizations, and the general public. It was particularly moving to listen to Shabana’s young nephews and nieces reading a text written by her about working for freedom and equality. The fight for freedom in all senses of the word was Shabana’s trademark and calling in life from when she was a teenager till she passed away at the young age of 46, having to give in to pancreatic cancer, diagnosed less than a year ago. Shabana Rehman’s family came to Norway from Karachi in 1976 when she was just a year old. She grew up in the new multicultural suburb, Holmlia, in Oslo with her parents and seven siblings. She studied ethics and media at the university and began working in journalism and as a public speaker and comedian. She was a master of seeing things that others often didn’t see, describing them and formulating reactions if she thought they were wrong. Many times, she focused on problems with negative social control, in Pakistani and other immigrant communities, including forced marriages and more. She also criticised aspects of traditional Norwegian communities, and she said that many Norwegians are ignorant and have prejudices about immigrants and other things, often without realizing it themselves and even believing they are open-minded and inclusive. To get attention and get audiences to open their minds and give room for alternative thinking, Shabana often used dramatic words and stunts. For example, she lifted a controversial conservative mullah on stage, to his dismay, but she said that if a little woman can do that, perhaps he wasn’t so scary after all, and the media loved it. At a young age, she also painted the Norwegian flag on her body, making her dress for the prank, and again, the media loved it. She did such things to get listened to when she addressed all kinds of freedom issues, stressing that people themselves should find out how to think, live and act, not just be conformists within their own cultures and traditions. She emphasised that people should be free to follow the religion they wanted, the denomination they felt suited them, or not be members of any organized faith association. She had some discussions with family members about these issues, but mostly they supported her calling to stress that all individuals should make the choices that are right for them. Shabana had in her work a tremendous urge to search, explore and not take conventional truth for final and eternal. Yet, she was also humble and insecure, and kind to people she disagreed with, and encouraged them to be blunt and truthful with her. In several of the eulogies at her funeral, friends spoke about these aspects of her personality, saying that her calling was a search for truth, freedom, and for people to express their opinions. Shabana, in her kindness, was also concerned about animal welfare and the protection of nature. It is for current and future academics to study Shabana Rehman’s work, which spanned more than 25 years and make some systematic evaluation of its form and content, and its longerterm impact, whether we agreed or disagreed with her. Shabana was a product of her time, her heritage and family background, and the multicultural land and city she grew up and lived in—and she was thankful to both, indeed to her parents and siblings. Although Shabana was certainly controversial both in the Pakistani-Norwegian community, among other Muslims and immigrants, and ethnic Norwegians, she was also highly respected for her courage to take up issues and speak in ways that were often seen as taboo, impolite or unheard of. She took a lot of space, and in certain ways, she was quite unhinged and unafraid of speaking against power, traditions and conventions. If she had always been stringent and logical, she might well have been stopped. Having been blunt and sometimes outrageous, and sometimes contradictory, she could get away with many types of messages, asking people to think about what it is to be free. Shabana Rehman’s ways of addressing many types of issues have taken Norway several steps ahead in the multicultural and other social debates. The Norwegians must all be thankful that an immigrant woman has helped them make their country fairer and freer. She held up in broad daylight many of the village and city ‘trolls’, local or foreign, and when the sunshine on the trolls, they burst and new understandings and outlooks develop. Shabana even gained support from some conservatives, including Vebjørn Selbekk, Chief Editor of the Christian newspaper, ‘Dagen’. On the day of her funeral, he wrote in his paper: “She was the most courageous woman we have had in Norway in recent decades.” I am sure he wouldn’t support all she said in her many performances and articles, but at the same time, he would support her efforts and her focus on freedom of speech and human rights issues. Let me refer to the 18th-century French philosopher Voltaire who is quoted as having said: “I disapprove of what you say, but I shall fight till the death your right to say it.” Where it all is, it seems that the Norwegians are proud of their countrywoman Shabana Rehman and what she gave them, and they mourn her early passing. The fact that the Norwegian government honoured her with a state funeral shows that she was an important human being and a unique woman of her time. Thank you, Shabana, for having made us all a bit wiser, Norwegians, Pakistanis and others; our search for freedoms and better lives for all must continue.