Masoumeh Ebtekar (; born 21 September 1960) is an Iranian politician. A Reformist, she headed the country's Department of Environment from 1997 to 2005 and again from 2013 to 2017, after which she served as the Vice President for Women and Family Affairs from 2017 to 2021. Her appointment to the Cabinet of Iran in 1997 marked her as the institution's third female member overall and the first female member since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. She is currently a full-time professor in the Immunology Department of the School of Medical Sciences at Tarbiat Modares University in the city of Tehran.
During the Iran hostage crisis, which began in November 1979 and ended in January 1981, Ebtekar was the spokesperson for the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line. Variously nicknamed "Mary", "Sister Mary" and "Screaming Mary", by the American media, so-named after her broadcasts in American English, she and her colleagues occupied the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, where they held American citizens in captivity for 444 days with the approval of Ruhollah Khomeini, who had recently seized power as the Supreme Leader of Iran. The hostage crisis triggered ongoing hostilities between Iran and the United States. However, despite her views, Ebtekar's oldest son Eissa Hashemi has been residing in the United States since the early 2010s, prompting criticism from opponents of the Islamic Republic government. In April 2026, U.S federal agents arrested Eissa, his wife, Maryam, and their son, revoking their permanent resident status. They are currently in detention and awaiting deportation because of their relationship with Ebtekar.
Between 2007 and 2013, Ebtekar was part of the Islamic City Council of Tehran. In 1998, she joined the Islamic Iran Participation Front, which was banned in 2010, and has since been affiliated with the Union of Islamic Iran People Party.
Early life and education Ebtekar was born in Tehran, Iran as Masoumeh Niloufar Ebtekar in a middle-class family. Her first name translates to "Innocent Water Lily" in English. Ebtekar's father studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and she lived with her parents in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. During her six years in Philadelphia, she developed "near-perfect, American-accented English."Sciolino, Elaine, Persian Mirrors : the Elusive Face of Iran, Free Press, (2005), p. 116 Returning to Iran she enrolled in Iranzamin (Tehran International School). Later after graduation as a student, she became a supporter of the political Islam of Ali Shariati and began wearing a traditional black chador covering everything except her face.Bowden, Mark, Guests of the Ayatollah, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006, p. 161
Ebtekar holds a BSc degree in laboratory science from Shahid Beheshti University, a MSc and PhD in immunology from Tarbiat Modares University in 1995, where she still teaches. Ebtekar is married to Seyyed Mohammad Hashemi who is a businessman in the private sector. They have two children.
Academic career Ebtekar has served as faculty member at Tarbiat Modares University, which is a postgraduate academic center located in Tehran. As Professor of Immunology, she has taught, supervised and advised PhD and MSc students. Ebtekar currently teaches cytokines, viral immunology, HIV vaccines, aging, immunology of the nervous system and psychoneuroimmunology. She has currently filed 72 ISI scientific articles in the field of immunology in Scopus in her name. In her speech to the Eleventh International Congress of Immunology in Tehran, she mentioned the detrimental effect of sanctions on the advancement of science in Iran and noted that sanctions should not be directed against nations. Ebtekar is a member of several research board committees and a reviewer for two international and four national immunology journals. Ebtekar was promoted to full Professorship in January 2019 and elected as Immunology & Allergy Association in 2018.
Accusations of scientific misconduct
On 7 October 2008, eTBLAST, a text similarity search engine on MEDLINE database, noted that 85% of a review paper published by Masoumeh Ebtekar came from several previously published articles. The review paper, on cytokines and air pollution, was published in 2006 in the Iran Journal of Allergy Asthma Immunology (IJAAI) 5 47-56:2006. A couple weeks after the eTBLAST report, Nature covered the story, quoting one of the authors of original papers, (Ian Mudway, a toxicologist at the King's College London) as saying, "the article is a veritable patchwork of other people's work, word for word, grammatical error for grammatical error." Nature also stated that Ebtekar had not replied to its emails.Iranian paper sparks sense of deja vu, Nature.com, 23 October 2008, Vol 455, In response, the editor-in-chief of the IJAAI issued a statement saying: "We regret for this duplication that appeared in the journal. We are working with the editors of the JACI journal [the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, a scholarly periodical that published three of the papers from which Ebtekar had copied] to find the best solution in this regard." In December 2008 Ebtekar's article was retracted.
The issue received some political and public attention in Iran. Ebtekar issued a statement admitting she had made a mistake and apologizing for it, but including a list of complaints such as eTBLAST's failure to inform her of their finding in advance, the fact that the article was a review article she was invited to write for the Journal, and that more than 76 references were given in the text.
President of the 12th International Congress of Immunology
In 2013 Ebtekar was elected as the President of the 12th International Congress of Immunology. The Congress was held on 29 April 2014. Ebtekar spoke in the opening ceremony and introduced Swiss immunologist Rolf Zinkernagel, the Nobel Laureate for Medicine, as the guest of honour.
Political career
Journalism and NGOs In 1981, Ebtekar became the editor-in-chief of the English daily newspaper Kayhan International, selected by Khatami who was then the representative of Ayatollah Khomeini in Kayhan Institute. She served in the newspaper until 1983. In 1991 she co-founded the Institute for Women's Studies and Research. Since 1992, she has been the license holder and managing director of the journal Farzaneh Journal for Women's Studies and Research. Ebtekar was appointed as the Head of Women's NGO Coordinating Office and Vice Head of the National Committee to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Later, she was elected as the President of the Network of Women's NGOs in Iran.
Ebtekar co-founded the Center for Peace and Environment in 2005, a non-governmental organization devoted to the protection of the environment.
Ebtekar served as a moderator in June 2008 at the International "Women, Equality and Peace" Conference held in Oslo, Norway. The conference was sponsored by the Foundation for Dialogue Among Civilizations, Club de Madrid and the Oslo Center.
Ebtekar considered for running in the 2009 presidential election after Guardian Council indicated that there is no "legal restraint" against women doing so. However, she withdrew a few weeks before the election.
Ebtekar published her memoir as the first female Vice President of Iran, entitled the Grapes of Shahrivar on May 3, 2009. Published by Etelleat Newspaper Publishing House, the memoirs refer to the events of the reforms period in Iran. She has also published a collection of her essays and speeches on the environment and sustainable development, called Natural Peace.published in 2005 by the Iranian Department of Environment. These speeches include titles such as Human Rights and Challenges of the Century, Perspectives on Sustainable Development and the Role of the Woman in Iranian Society, etc. She also had two articles from Natural Peace published in Our Planet , the Magazine of the United Nations Environment Program (in 2005), and Market Messengers (in 2006). www.unep.org After leaving her government position in 2005, Ebtekar has spoken as inaugural or keynote speaker at many international events.
Role in the Islamic Revolution and the Iran hostage crisis (1979–1981) Ebtekar served as spokeswoman for the students in the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, where Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line occupied the US Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Selected because of her good command of English, she made regular appearances on American television as translator and spokeswoman for the students, where she presented the official positions of the students. She was referred to as "Mary" by foreign press, and "Tiger Lily" by the hostages, a play on the translation of "Niloufar". Elaine Sciolino wrote about Ebtekar's own viewpoint: "Asked by an ABC News correspondent one day 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.'"Sciolino, Persian Mirrors, (2005), p. 117 She is said to be remembered by many Americans (hostages such as David Roeder, Barbara Timm, the mother of hostage Kevin Hermening and those who watched her on television) with a great lack of fondness, in part because "her familiarity with America added profound emphasis to her rejection of it."Bowden, Mark, Guests of the Ayatollah, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006, pp. 162–3 When asked by an American interviewer (Elaine Sciolino) in the late 1990s about her past as spokeswoman for the hostage-takers, why it did not appear on her resume, and why she had changed her name from Niloufar to Masoumeh, Ebtekar "had no apology and made no excuses" about her role,"Top Woman in Iran's Government Once Spoke for Hostage-Takers", New York Times, January 28, 1998, p. A6 describing the hostage taking as "the best direction that could have been taken" by Iran at the time, but surprised the interviewer with her "chutzpah", insisting that the interviewer "not write much about these things."Sciolino, Persian Mirrors (2005), p. 118 Ebtekar wrote an account of the embassy takeover with Fred A. Reed titled Takeover in Tehran: The Inside Story of the 1979 U.S. Embassy Capture.Ebtekar, Masoumeh; Reed, Fred A. (2000). Takeover in Tehran: The Inside Story of the 1979 U.S. Embassy Capture. Talonbooks; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. . The Persian translation of this book was published in Tehran by Etellaat Newspaper Publications the same year and the Arabic translation was published in Beirut by Al Hadi Publications. Reed attacked the Western media's depiction of Ebtekar: "For twenty years the prevailing 'globalized' version of the embassy capture has cast the students at best as well-intentioned but naive young people manipulated ...and at worst as irresponsible extremists."Takeover in Tehran, 2001, Talon Books, p. 16
She was an advisor of Shahla Habibi, head of the 'Bureau of Women's Affairs' under administration Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the 1990s, and was reportedly the "main driving-force" behind the office.
In the 2012 film Argo, Ebtekar was portrayed by Nikka Far and called only "Tehran Mary" in the credits.
Head of the Department of Environment (1997–2005)
Ebtekar was the first woman to serve as vice-president of Iran when the reformists came to power. Along with Zahra Shojaei, she participated in the first cabinet since the Islamic Revolution to include women. She has been described as a leftist in Mohammad Khatami's alliance. Ebtekar headed the Department of Environment for eight years, introducing major structural, organizational and directional changes enabling a re-engineering of the government body. During her tenure environmental awareness and support for civil society activism in this area was enhanced.