‘There’s a significant lack of knowledge’: Iranian American legislator on countries’ tangled history amid conflict

Yassamin Ansari, an Arizona representative, explains how her background shapes her perspective on US foreign policy

Arizona congresswoman Yassamin Ansari brings an unusually personal perspective to the US's fraught relationship with Iran. The daughter of two Iranian parents who fled their homeland - her father as a student in the 1970s who couldn't return after the 1979 revolution, her mother as a 17-year-old in 1981 escaping the new regime's restrictions on women - Ansari grew up immersed in the complexities of US-Iran relations.

This deep familiarity with both Iranian domestic politics and the tangled history between Washington and Tehran has given the Democratic freshman a distinctive edge in debates over military strikes, sanctions and diplomatic engagement.