Quick Facts
| Full Name: | Masoumeh Ebtekar |
| Age: | 64 years |
| Birthday: | September 21, 1960 |
| Birthplace: | Tehran |
| Nationality: | Iranian |
| Gender: | Female |
| Horoscope: | Virgo |
| Husband: | Seyyed Mohammad Hashemi |
| Net Worth: | N/A |
| Height: | N/A |
| Profession: | Iranian Politician, Vice President |
| Kids: | Two (Isa Hashemi and Taha Hashemi) |
Masoumeh Ebtekar is Iran’s Vice President for Women and Family Affairs at the moment. On August 9, 2017, Masoumeh Ebtekar was appointed. She succumbed to the coronavirus-caused COVID-19 pandemic that is still raging around the world.
How old is Masoumeh Ebtekar?
Masoumeh Ebtekar was born on September 21, 1960, in Tehran, to a middle-class family as Niloufar Ebtekar. And he’s 64 years old right now. In English, her given name means “Innocent Water Lily.” Fatemeh and Taghi Ebtekar are her parents.
Masoumeh Ebtekar’s father attended the University of Pennsylvania, and she lived in Upper Darby, Philadelphia, with her parents. She learned “near-perfect, American-accented English” in Philadelphia during her six years there.
Schooling of Masoumeh Ebtekar
She enrolled in Iranzamin after returning to Iran (Tehran International School). Following graduation, she became a supporter of Ali Shariati’s political Islam and began wearing a traditional black chador that covered her entire body except her face.
Shahid Beheshti University awarded her a BSc in laboratory science, and Tarbiat Modares University awarded her an MSc and Ph.D. in immunology in 1995. She also taught at Tarbiat Modares University, a postgraduate academic center in Tehran.
She has taught, supervised, and advised Ph.D. and MSc students as an Associate Professor of Immunology. Currently, Ebtekar teaches cytokines, viral immunology, HIV vaccines, aging, nervous system immunology, and psychoneuroimmunology.
In her name, she has filed 41 ISI scientific articles in immunology. In Tehran, she spoke at the Eleventh International Congress of Immunology. Masoumeh Ebtekar discussed the negative impact of sanctions on scientific advancement in Iran and stated that sanctions should not be directed at individuals. Masoumeh Ebtekar also serves on several research board committees and serves as a peer reviewer for two international and four national immunology journals.
Awards and recognition of Masoumeh Ebtekar
Ebtekar was named one of seven 2006 Champions of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Program. She was recognized as an influential and “inspiring” environmental leader. She has had an impact on global policy in a specific region. However, she believes the award was the result of a collaborative effort.
She claimed to have earned her position by assembling a team of scholars and experts in her Department of the Environment. President Khatami is also credited with emphasizing the importance of environmental initiatives.
On January 5, 2008, she was named one of 50 environmental leaders by the Guardian newspaper. On the list, she was the only Iranian or Muslim woman. Ebtekar was named one of the world’s 500 most influential Muslims by The Muslim500 in 2012.
They described Ebtekar as a “significant force in Iran’s reformist movement” in the yearbook’s political section. Ebtekar was awarded the Energy Globe Foundation Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award on January 24, 2014, in Tehran. Masoumeh Ebtekar also received the Italian Minerva Award on November 29th, 2014.
It was in recognition of her scientific accomplishments as well as her successful political career. Dr. Masoumeh Ebtekar was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Political Science by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea, in May 2016.
Career line of Masoumeh Ebtekar
- Masoumeh Ebtekar is currently Iran’s Vice President and the head of the Environmental Protection Organization, having been appointed on September 10, 2013. She previously served as Iran’s Vice President from August 2, 1997, to August 3, 2005, making her the country’s first female Vice President.
- She rose to fame as “Mary” at first. Mary is the spokesperson for the students who kidnapped and occupied the US Embassy in 1979.
- Masoumeh Ebtekar later became the head of Iran’s Environment Protection Organization during President Mohammad Khatami’s administration, and she served on the Tehran City Council from 2007 to 2013.
- Masoumeh Ebtekar was appointed editor-in-chief of Kayhan International, an English daily newspaper, in 1981. Khatami chose her as Ayatollah Khomeini’s representative at Kayhan Institute. She worked as a reporter for the paper until 1983. Masoumeh helped establish the Institute for Women’s Studies and Research in 1991.
- She has held the license and served as managing director of the Farzaneh Journal for Women’s Studies and Research since 1992. In 1995, she was also appointed as the Head of the Women’s NGO Coordinating Office and the Vice Chair of the National Committee to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. She was later elected President of Iran’s Network of Women’s Non-Governmental Organizations.
- In the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line occupied the US Embassy and held 52 Americans, hostage, for 444 days, Ebtekar served as a spokesperson for the students.
- They chose her because of her strong command of the English language; she appeared on American television regularly as a translator and spokesperson for the students, presenting the students’ official positions. The hostages dubbed her “Tiger Lily” after a play on the translation of “Niloufar” in the international press.
- Takeover in Tehran: The Inside Story of the 1979 U.S. Embassy Capture, co-written by Masoumeh Ebtekar and Fred A.
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- Reed, is a book about the embassy takeover. Many Americans (including hostages David Roeder and Barbara Timm, as well as the mother of hostage Kevin Hermening and those who watched her on television) remember her with apprehension. It was partly because “her familiarity with America added profound emphasis to her rejection of it.”
- When the reformists took power in Iran, Masoumeh Ebtekar became the country’s first female Vice-President. Along with Zahra Shojaei, she was a member of the first female cabinet formed since the Islamic Revolution. In Mohammad Khatami’s alliance, Masoumeh is described as a leftist.
- For eight years, Masoumeh Ebtekar was the Director of the Environment. She also implemented significant structural, organizational, and directional changes that enabled the government body to be re-engineered. During her tenure, environmental awareness and civil society activism in this area were increased.
- In 1998, on International Women’s Day, she delivered a speech condemning the Taliban Movement in Afghanistan’s oppression of women. Masoumeh Ebtekar’s performance elicited comments from members of the Western news media in attendance, as she wore a chador, a symbol of Iran’s mandatory hijab. It is an issue that many Westerners see as a violation of women’s rights.
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