Maryam Monsef still waiting on citizenship paperwork after birthplace revelation
OTTAWA — More than a year after Maryam Monsef revealed she was not actually born in Afghanistan, as she had previously believed, the Liberal cabinet minister is still waiting for the government to update her documents.
“Just like everybody else, I’m waiting my turn,” the status of women minister said in an interview with The Canadian Press last week.
In September 2016, the Globe and Mail reported that Monsef, hailed by the Liberals as Canada’s first Afghan-born MP, was actually born in Mashhad, Iran, a city about 200 kilometres away from the border with Afghanistan.
At the time, Monsef said her parents fled Afghanistan as the security situation there deteriorated and that after her father was killed, her mother never discussed what the minister described as the unspeakable pain of those early years — until media inquiries prompted Monsef to press her for details.