Masoumeh Ebtekar

Masoumeh Ebtekar (Persian: معصومه ابتکار; born 21 September 1960) is an Iranian politician. A Reformist, she headed the country's Department of Environment from 1997 to 2005 and again from 2013 to 2017, after which she served as the Vice President for Women and Family Affairs from 2017 to 2021. Her appointment to the Cabinet of Iran in 1997 marked her as the institution's third female member overall and the first female member since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. She is currently a full-time professor in the Immunology Department of the School of Medical Sciences at Tarbiat Modares University in the city of Tehran.

During the Iran hostage crisis, which began in November 1979 and ended in January 1981, Ebtekar was the spokesperson for the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line. Variously nicknamed "Mary" and "Sister Mary" by the American media, which also took note of her broadcasts in American English, she and her colleagues occupied the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, where they held American citizens in captivity for 444 days with the approval of Ruhollah Khomeini, who had recently seized power as the Supreme Leader of Iran. The hostage crisis triggered ongoing hostilities between Iran and the United States. However, despite her views, Ebtekar's oldest son Eissa Hashemi has been residing in the United States since the early 2010s, prompting criticism from opponents of the Islamic Republic government.

Between 2007 and 2013, Ebtekar was part of the Islamic City Council of Tehran. In 1998, she joined the Islamic Iran Participation Front, which was banned in 2010, and has since been affiliated with the Union of Islamic Iran People Party.