Houshang Ansari was born in Ahvaz, into a modest family whose circumstances were far removed from the elite circles he would later inhabit. His original family name was Mostamand Shirazi, and his father, Abdol Rasoul Ansari, worked as a cashier at the National Bank of Iran—a respectable but financially limited position. Contrary to later rumors that portrayed him as born into privilege, Ansari’s childhood was marked by material constraints, frequent relocations, and the uncertainty typical of lower-middle-class life in early Pahlavi Iran.
Recognizing his son’s intelligence and ambition, his father sent him to the American School in Isfahan, an environment that proved decisive. There, Ansari was introduced not only to English but to a Western-oriented curriculum that emphasized modern sciences, journalism, and liberal education. It was also where he encountered photography—an art and profession that would become his first gateway into public life.
