Maryam Monsef says she visited Iran in 2014. Travelling to Iran, however, is no easy feat. Especially for a person carrying a Canadian passport.

I know from personal experience. In 2014, after my wedding, I wanted to travel to Iran to visit my new in-laws. My husband was born there, but hasn’t returned since his family immigrated to Canada in 1995.

I wanted to visit my husband’s extended family and see where he grew up. But I was repeatedly told it was not a good idea for a Canadian to go there.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism, the world’s biggest abuser of human rights and one of the most secretive governments in the world.

Iran’s mullahs have a bad habit of kidnapping visitors and using them as diplomatic pawns in their maniacal foreign policy.

In 2012, the Harper government expelled Iran’s diplomats from Canada, closed the Iranian embassy and cut diplomatic ties.

Iran reacted in early 2014 by imposing severe travel restrictions on Canadians.

Those with Canadian passports could no longer simply apply for a tourist visa. They were required to first sign up through a government-sponsored tour.

Much like in North Korea, Canadian tourists became required to travel with a state-approved guide.

Given the strained relationship between Iran and Canada at the time, and given Maryam Monsef’s status as an Afghan refugee and Canadian citizen, it is strange that she was able to visit Iran in 2014. Very strange.

According to her own account, she wanted to move back to Afghanistan for work, but was denied entry due to the deteriorating security situation. Instead, she told Le Devoir, she went to Iran and worked with Afghan refugees.

How long did she stay? Did she obtain a work visa to enter? Since there is no Iranian embassy in North America, where was her visa issued?

Perhaps Monsef somehow received Iranian travel documents, which would have made it much easier for her to travel to Iran.

These are questions I put to Monsef’s office this week.

In response, I was simply told, “as she previously stated, Minister Monsef holds both Canadian and Afghan citizenships. She is not, nor was she ever an Iranian citizen.”

That doesn’t answer the question of how she was able to travel and work in Iran in 2014.

Following the recent revelation that Monsef was born in Iran, not Afghanistan, she insisted other elements of her refugee story remain true. The Monsef family fled Afghanistan, travelled back to Mashhad, Iran, then on to Islamabad and Karachi in Pakistan, Amman, Jordan and finally, to Montreal where they asked for asylum in Canada.

The fact that the family did not claim refugee status in any of the places along the way implies that they weren’t safe in these countries.

Iran, Pakistan and Jordan were all unable to provide protection to the Monsef family.

But if Iran was so unsafe that Monsef needed to flee, why did she return in 2014?

How was Monsef able to get a visa from the Islamic Republic, which routinely discriminates against both women and Afghans?

How long did she stay, and did she meet with any Iranian regime officials while she was there?

These are questions that Monsef must answer. That she continues to avoid fair questions is more troubling than the fact that she was born in Iran, and not Afghanistan as she once claimed.