US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has terminated the lawful permanent resident status of the son and daughter-in-law of Masoumeh Ebtekar, the Iranian figure widely known in America as “Screaming Mary”, and placed them in immigration custody pending deportation. The move has brought renewed attention to Ebtekar herself, one of the most recognisable faces of the 1979 US Embassy hostage crisis.
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Born In Iran, Raised In Philadelphia
Ebtekar was born on September 21, 1960, in Tehran. Her father studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and the family lived in Upper Darby Township just outside Philadelphia. During those six years in suburban America, she developed near-perfect, American-accented English.That fluency would later make her the face of one of the most humiliating episodes in American diplomatic history.
The Face Of The Hostage Crisis
When Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, Ebtekar, then just 19-year-old and a college freshman, joined the protest, first as an interpreter and then as the official spokeswoman for the hostage-takers. She made regular appearances on American television, calmly defending the captivity of 52 US diplomats and staff who were held for 444 days.
When an ABC News correspondent asked her whether she could see herself picking up a gun and killing the hostages, she replied: “Yes. When I’ve seen an American gun being lifted up and killing my brothers and sisters in the streets, of course.” American hostages remembered her with deep bitterness. Her familiarity with America, commentators noted, “added profound emphasis to her rejection of it.”
A Successful Career
Far from facing consequences, Ebtekar rose through Iran’s political ranks. She headed Iran’s Department of Environment from 1997 to 2005 and again from 2013 to 2017, making her the first female cabinet member in Iran since the Islamic Revolution. She later served as Vice President for Women and Family Affairs from 2017 to 2021. When asked in the late 1990s about her role in the crisis, she had “no apology and made no excuses,” describing the hostage-taking as “the best direction that could have been taken” by Iran at the time.
Her Son In America, And Now In ICE Custody
Ebtekar’s oldest son, Eissa Hashemi, enrolled as a doctoral student at the Los Angeles branch of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Rubio said the Obama administration granted the family US visas in 2014 and lawful permanent resident status in 2016 through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. Hashemi, now 43, has been working as an adjunct associate professor at The Chicago School in Claremont, east of Los Angeles, and has lived in the United States since 2010.
What Did Rubio Say?
Rubio announced that he terminated their legal status this week. “This week, I terminated their lawful permanent resident status,” he wrote, adding that Seyed Eissa Hashemi, his wife Maryam Tahmasebi, and their son are now in ICE custody awaiting removal. “
Her family should never have been allowed to benefit from the extraordinary privilege of living in our country,” Rubio said. “America can never become home for anti-American terrorists or their families — and under the Trump Administration, it never will.”
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.
In 2014, the Obama…
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) April 11, 2026
Part Of A Broader Crackdown
Earlier this month, Rubio also terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of former Iranian National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, and her husband. Both have since left the United States and are barred from re-entry. The State Department said the Trump administration “will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.”
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