Masoumeh Ebtekar

Masoumeh Ebtekar (; born 21 September 1960) is an Iranian reformist politician, who was the Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs, from 9 August 2017 to 1 September 2021. She previously headed Department of Environment from 1997 to 2005, making her the first female member in the cabinet of Iran since 1979 and the third in history. She held the same level of office from 2013 to 2017. She is a full professor at Tarbiat Modares University in the School of Medical Sciences, Immunology Department.

Ebtekar was nicknamed "Mary", when she was the spokeswoman of the students who climbed up the US embassy during the 1979 revolution in Iran and held US embassy staff in captivity for 444 days, an incident led to the 45 years long feud between Iran and America. Ebtekar's son, Isa Hashemi is now residing in the United States. She said in an interview "we have to respect people’s individuality, my son decided to study and work in America and there is nothing wrong with that, this doesn't mean he supports the hegemonic nature of America’s domination."

Later she became the head of the Environment Protection Organization of Iran during the administration of President Mohammad Khatami, and was a city councilwoman of Tehran from 2007 to 2013. Provided by Wikipedia