Minister still waiting on paperwork

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.

“She told us she did not think it mattered,” Monsef said in a September 2016 statement. “We were Afghan citizens, as we were born to Afghan parents, and under Iranian law, we would not be considered Iranian citizens despite being born in that country.”

Monsef, who had listed her birthplace as Herat, Afghanistan, when she applied for a Canadian passport, promised she would take steps to fix the error.

Since then, she has submitted documentation to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, but is still waiting for a resolution.

“There’s just nothing to tell,” said Monsef, who made it clear she did not wish to be questioned about it further.