It doesn’t.
In recent weeks, the Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef, has been embroiled in a political scandal when The Globe and Mail reported that she was not actually born in Afghanistan – a key component of her personal narrative – and was born 200 km away across the border in Iran.
But it doesn’t matter. She’s still the daughter of refugees and according to Canadaland, these facts still remain true:
- lost her father to the war,
- was never an Iranian citizen,
- is an Afghan citizen,
- spent two and a half years in Afghanistan directly before fleeing, and
- left in 1996 after the Taliban captured Herat, her home at the time and where her parents married.
The area where she was born is characterized by porous borders, and inaccurate government records.
Identity is not just derived from where a person is born. The customs, the traditions and the food that you grow up with can become a part of your identity. The activities, hobbies and interests that you take on can become a part of your identity. And it remains true that Minister Monsef grew up as a Afghan, arrived in Canada as refugees, and continued to grow up as an Afghan-Canadian like many of us immigrants to this country. In a time where refugee issues and democratic reform issues are at the forefront of the political discussion, it’s clear that this is a ridiculous political attack meant to derail progress on those issues. And this one is completely reprehensible.
If she wasn’t a female person of colour, this would not have been a scandal.
http://www.canadalandshow.com/reporting-monsefs-story-without-context-irresponsible-journalism/
http://www.macleans.ca/politics/what-you-need-to-know-about-maryam-monsef/