Raheleh Amiri, an Iranian-born activist blinded in one eye by Revolutionary Guard gunfire, is publicly denouncing the detained son of “Screaming Mary.”
Amiri, who lives in California, spoke with The California Post about Seyed Eissa Hashemi, 43, the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, the notorious spokeswoman for the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage-takers in Tehran. Hashemi, his wife Maryam Tahmasebi, and their teenage son have been in ICE custody since April, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their green cards and ordered their deportation.
The family entered the United States in 2014 on visas issued during the Obama administration and obtained lawful permanent residency in 2016 through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. They had been living in the Los Angeles area, where Hashemi and Tahmasebi both worked as professors at The Chicago School, before their arrest and transfer to a Texas ICE detention center.
Hashemi is now soliciting financial support through a GoFundMe campaign that has raised nearly $40,000 to fight removal proceedings. Tahmasebi broke her silence through her attorney in a letter published by The Nation earlier this month, describing their detention conditions as “hell” and stating, “I just want an ordinary life in America for myself and my son.”
Amiri, who still carries physical scars from Iran’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters, fired back at that plea in her interview. “I, and many young Iranians who were shot, tortured, harassed, and killed by the government of the Islamic Republic, also wanted one thing and one thing only: an ordinary life for ourselves in our own country, Iran,” she said.
Amiri continued her condemnation with sharp words about the family’s tactics. “Resistance to and defiance of U.S. Laws are part of the DNA of the Iranian regime’s rulers and their families,” she stated. “Just as the Islamic Republic plays a new game with the Trump administration every day and tries to buy time so it can circumvent sanctions and prolong the disgraceful life of the Islamic Republic, the Ebtekar family is doing the same thing.”
Tahmasebi’s letter and the family’s fundraising effort have drawn significant backlash from the Iranian-American community, roughly half a million of whom reside in California. Multiple petitions on Change.org had previously called for Hashemi to be investigated and deported, according to a review by Fox News Digital.
Amiri directly challenged Tahmasebi’s effort to downplay Ebtekar’s role, arguing that the infamous public face of the hostage crisis held important leadership positions in the Islamic Republic up to the present day, including serving as Iran’s vice president for women and family affairs from 2017 to 2021. “Ebtekar and those who share her views have played an important role in the repression, killing and wounding of young Iranians who wanted nothing more than an ordinary life,” Amiri said.
The activist went further, alleging that relatives of regime officials insist on remaining in America not for education, work, or ordinary life, but to build lobbying networks within Democratic administrations and operate as propaganda agents for the Islamic Republic. She called on the Trump administration and the American public not to be deceived by Tahmasebi’s words or to show sympathy toward the children of Islamic Republic officials living in the United States.
In the viral moment that launched this broader crackdown, Rubio announced on X in early April that he had terminated the family’s lawful permanent resident status. “Masoumeh Ebtekar — also known as ‘Screaming Mary’ — was the spokeswoman for the Islamic terrorists who stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days — subjecting them to beatings, starvation, and mock executions,” Rubio wrote. He added, “Her family should never have been allowed to benefit from the extraordinary privilege of living in our country. America can never become home for anti-American terrorists or their families — and under the Trump Administration, it never will.”
The Ebtekar family case is part of a wider Trump administration push targeting relatives of senior Iranian figures. In recent weeks, Rubio has also revoked the green cards of Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, the niece of slain IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani, and her daughter, who were arrested in Los Angeles and are now in ICE custody pending deportation. Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of former Iranian official Ali Larijani, and her husband Seyed Kalantar Motamedi also had their legal status terminated and have left the United States.
Amiri closed her remarks with a direct appeal to Rubio to follow up on Hashemi’s case until he is fully deported from the United States.
A federal judge has temporarily barred the government from deporting the Hashemi family after they filed petitions challenging the legality of their removal.