An Iranian-born activist who lost an eye after being shot by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard during protests is speaking out against the son of a controversial former Iranian official now battling to remain in the United States.
Raheleh Amiri, a California resident, has sharply criticized Seyed Eissa Hashemi, whose mother is Masoumeh Ebtekar — a prominent figure in Iran’s regime who became known as “Screaming Mary” while serving as a spokeswoman during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
Hashemi was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California several months ago as federal authorities moved to revoke his green card and deport him, reportedly under a directive from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The 43-year-old is now turning to Americans for financial support, using a GoFundMe campaign to help fund his effort to stay in the US.
Hashemi is fighting to remain in the same country his mother, decades earlier, had vowed to destroy.
The GoFundMe fundraiser has brought in nearly $40,000 so far. According to the campaign, the money is intended to assist Hashemi, his wife, Maryam Tahmasebi, and their teenage son as they challenge pending removal proceedings after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their green cards in April 2026.
Since April, the family has been held at an ICE detention facility in Texas, where US taxpayers are covering the cost of food, housing and clothing for the three-member family with close ties to Iran’s brutal regime.
Tahmasebi, Ebtekar’s daughter-in-law, has retained an attorney and appealed the deportation order. Now, through her lawyer, she is publicly addressing the case for the first time.
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.
Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters
