A 43-year-old son of a prominent Iranian figure is reportedly residing in Los Angeles, where he teaches psychology at The Chicago School.
Identified as Eissa Hashemi, he is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, infamously known as “Screaming Mary” during the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis when she acted as a spokesperson for the militants who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, according to a report by the New York Post published on Monday.
Hashemi is listed on The Chicago School’s website, and his presence in the U.S. has sparked calls for his deportation through petitions on Change.org.
One petition argues, “While his mother remains unapologetic about the U.S. embassy takeover, many Iranians have suffered from her actions, yet her son benefits from living in the U.S. We demand that Issa Hashemi and his wife, Maryam Tahmasebi, be expelled from the U.S. immediately.”
Critics claim Hashemi has never publicly condemned his mother’s involvement in the hostage crisis, which saw 52 Americans held captive for 444 days.
Back in 2015, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty noted that Hashemi was pursuing a doctoral degree at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology’s Los Angeles campus.
In 2015, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty reported that Hashemi was a doctoral student at the Los Angeles branch of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
The article said that during the hostage crisis, his mother was often seen on American television reports and “repeatedly and unabashedly explained her hatred for the United States,” the outlet continued, noting she grew up in Philadelphia:
Eissa Hashemi is not alone — a number of children of Iranian officials have reportedly made the choice to study in Western countries, including the United States.
But as could be expected, Hashemi’s choice has led critics to question how his parents could allow their son to study in the country they once regularly denounced. After all, hostility toward the United States is one of the pillars of the Islamic establishment that Ebtekar and her husband helped forge.
Following the hostage crisis, Ebtekar became the first female vice president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, – News reported in January.
Video footage from 1979 shows her speaking to a reporter, claiming, “The United States is an imperialist power.”
The outlet said Sunday, “Iranian terror mastermind Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani’s niece — who showcased her lavish Los Angeles lifestyle on social media while bashing the U.S. as the ‘Great Satan’ — was arrested by federal authorities over the weekend and will be removed from the U.S. with no chance of ever returning,” adding the woman’s daughter was also arrested.
