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An Iranian-born activist who lost an eye after being shot by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard during protests is blasting the son of a notorious former Iranian official who is fighting to remain in the US.
Raheleh Amiri, who lives in California, is taking aim at Seyed Eissa Hashemi, the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar — the Iranian regime figure once dubbed “Screaming Mary” for her role as a spokeswoman during the 1979 hostage crisis.
Hashemi was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California months ago amid an effort to revoke his green card and deport him, reportedly under an order from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The 43-year-old is now asking Americans for financial help through GoFundMe to stay in the US.
Hashemi is refusing to leave the country his mother vowed, just a few decades ago, to destroy.
The GoFundMe campaign has already raised nearly $40,000. It is meant to help Hashemi, his wife, Maryam Tahmasebi, and their teenage son fight pending removal proceedings after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their green cards in April 2026.
Since April, the family has been staying in a Texas ICE detention center, with American taxpayers footing the bill to keep the family of three, closely tied to the murderous Iranian regime, fed, housed and clothed.
Tahmasebi, Ebtekar’s daughter-in-law, has hired a lawyer and appealed their deportation order. Through her attorney, she has broken her silence.
In a letter published by The Nation earlier this month, she pleads for help, calling the place “hell.”
Amiri, who still carries the scars of the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on anti-government demonstrations, spoke with The California Post and highlighted what she sees as the injustice of Iranians in her home country being readily executed without due process while the Ebtekar family benefits from an American justice system that often drags legal cases into year-long ordeals.
The Tahmasebi letter quickly went viral, drawing significant backlash from the Iranian-American community, half a million of whom reside in California.
Amiri weighed in:
“Resistance to and defiance of U.S. laws are part of the DNA of the Iranian regime’s rulers and their families. 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.
In response to Tahmasebi’s statement, “I just want an ordinary life in America for myself and my son,” Raheleh also said:
“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.”
Amiri argues that Ebtekar’s activities were not limited to serving as a translator in 1978, as Tahmasebi mentioned in an effort to downplay Ebtekar’s responsibilities.
In fact, the infamous public face of the Iranian Hostage Crisis continued to hold important leadership roles in the Islamic Republic up to the present day.
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 called on the Trump administration and the American public not to be deceived by the words of Ebtekar’s daughter-in-law or to show sympathy toward the children of Islamic Republic officials living in the United States.
She argues that they insist on remaining in America not for education, work or an ordinary life, but in reality to build lobbying networks within Democratic administrations and operate as propaganda for the Islamic Republic.
In closing, Amiri called on Marco Rubio to follow up on Ebtekar’s son’s case until he is fully deported from the United States.
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