Early Activism and Role in Iran Hostage Crisis
Ebtekar served as spokeswoman for the students in the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, where Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line occupied the US Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage of 444 days. Selected because of her good command of English, she made regular appearances on American television as translator and spokesperson for the students, where she presented the official positions of the students. Western media have systematically depicted this event in a negative manner, as Fred Reed describes in his foreword of "Takeover in Tehran." For twenty years the prevailing "globalized" version of the embassy capture has cast the students at best as well intentioned but naive young people manipulated ...and at worst as irresponsible extremists." For example, Elaine Sciolino wrote:
Asked by an ABC News correspondent one day whether she could see herself picking up a gun and killing the hostages, she replied: 'yes. When I've seen an American gun being lifted up and killing my brothers and sisters in the streets, of course.'
She wrote an account of the embassy takeover with Fred A. Reed entitled Takeover in Tehran: The Inside Story of the 1979 U.S. Embassy Capture She is said to be remembered by many Americans (hostages such as David Roeder, Barbara Timm, the mother of hostage Kevin Hermening and those who watched her on television) with a great lack of fondness, in part because "her familiarity with America added profound emphasis to her rejection of it."
When asked by an American interviewer (Elaine Sciolino) in the late 1990s about her past as spokeswoman for the hostage-takers, why it did not appear on her resume, and why she had changed her name from Nilofar to Masoumeh, Ebtekar "had no apology and made no excuses" about her role describing the hostage taking as "the best direction that could have been taken" by Iran at the time, but surprised the interviewer with her "chutzpah", insisting that the interviewer "not write much about these things." Sciolino published this article in the NYT unaware of the fact that Ebtekar's book was in print and would be published in 2001.
In the 2012 film Argo, Ebtekar was portrayed by Nikka Far and called only "Tehran Mary" in the credits.
Read more about this topic: Masoumeh Ebtekar
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