The Guardian, the daily newspaper in Canada’s smallest province, Prince Edward Island, referred to Nazanin Afshin-Jam in a headline last Wednesday as the “defense minister’s wife” and in the lead paragraph as “Defense Minister Peter MacKay’s wife,” getting around to using her full name only in the third reference.
“I have a name you know,” Afshin-Jam shouted tartly on Facebook shortly after the article was published.
The bigger problem, however, is that Afshin-Jam is having a problem in Canada being Afshin-Jam, former beauty queen and current human rights activist. Some in Canada seem to feel she should be a former human rights activist now that she is the wife of a cabinet member.
But Afshin-Jam made clear she intends to remain Nazanin Afshin-Jam and not become simply Mrs. Peter MacKay. Some wives of major political figures have maintained separate identities in Canada as in the United States, but there numbers are few in Canada—as in the United States.
There is an additional level to the problem, however, as some of Afshin-Jam’s positions conflict with those of the Conservative Party government of which her husband is one of the leading figures.
For example, last month Afshin-Jam publicly said that Canada ought to sever relations with the Islamic Republic and boot out all Iranian diplomats since some of them are believed spying on Iranian-Canadians. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird politely but clearly rejected that proposal.
In the article published in The Guardian, Afshin-Jam was quoted as saying the federal government should bring Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen detained in Guantanamo Bay for war crimes, back to Canada immediately. This has long been an issue in Canada, but the Conservative government has refused to accept Khadr from the Americans. In fact, that position was established back when a fellow named Peter MacKay was the minister of foreign affairs.
In her Facebook posting about The Guardian interview, Afshin-Jam said she had been drawn into a political discussion when she was under the impression the interview with The Guardian would be about her book, “The Tale of Two Nazanins,” which describes her efforts to save a teenager in Iran named Nazanin from being executed.
The political views she expressed in the interview were personal and “distorted” in the published article, she said. Some political analysts said Afshin-Jam would need to learn the tactics for keeping interviews on track so she would not be embarrassed in the future.
In her Facebook post, Afshin-Jam expressed anger about being referred to as MacKay’s wife. The couple married in Mexico last January.
“After I expressly and emphatically told [the reporter] numerous times that I was tired seeing my name continually left out of interviews and referred to as ‘The Defense Minister’s wife’ … this is exactly what he chose to do,” Afshin-Jam said.
Sylvia Bashevkin, a professor of political science and a specialist in women and politics at the University of Toronto, told the Ottawa Journal the spouse of a high-profile politician like MacKay has to expect to have a higher profile as a result of her marriage.
To be seen as an independent force separate from that political spouse is certainly doable, but rare, she said.
“It is possible, but I would argue it takes tremendous force of personality and tremendous political ambition. And it also takes the support of the spouse,” Bashevkin said.
Maureen McTeer, the wife of Joe Clark, who was prime minister of Canada in 1979-80 and foreign minister in 1984-91, is often cited as Canada’s shining example of an independent politician’s spouse. McTeer, a lawyer, author and health advocate, kept her own name and maintained her own career throughout her husband’s time in federal politics.
McTeer also maintained her own positions on policy matters, including women’s reproductive choice, where her liberal views clashed with the beliefs of many Conservative voters.
“I realize fully that my refusal to conform to society’s narrow definitions labeled me early on as a person of controversy,” McTeer wrote in her personal memoir, titled “In My Own Name”—the very title of the book screaming independence.
Politicians’ wives are expected to act as cheer-leaders for their husbands’ political ambitions—especially when their husbands are right-leaning, like MacKay—Bashevkin told the Citizen.
“Wives of politicians, traditionally, in Anglo-American systems, are expected to be sort of dutiful campaigners, who smile and clap at all the right times, as a sort of helpmate to their typically male spouse,” Bashevkin said.
In the United States, the wives of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden all had professional jobs and independent careers before their husbands took those jobs. All resigned their jobs to become full-time spouses and political adjuncts of their husbands once the husbands took the first and second jobs in the land.
The independent careers of cabinet members in the United States has not so far been an issue. But some spouses have been outspoken. The last to become a public issue because of her statements was the wife of President Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, who was known as a heavy drinker who showed no reluctance to express herself.
Nancy Peckford, the executive director of Equal Voice, a multi-partisan organization dedicated to electing more women to all levels of political office in Canada, says a quarter of the members of Canada’s House of Commons are now women and many of the male members—like MacKay—are now partnering with professional and well-established women with their own careers and opinions.
The role of politicians’ wives, therefore, is evolving from the expectations of 30 years ago when McTeer made waves for keeping her own name and identity, Peckford said.
“I don’t think we can expect women all of the sudden to be the mouthpiece of their partners. I don’t think that’s reasonable in a contemporary relationship,” Peckford said.
“I can certainly see where Peter MacKay’s partner is coming from and I respect her views and insistence that she be seen in her own right for her own identity and for her own opinions.”
The husband of Afshin-Jam has not said a word about his wife’s remarks.
