Iranian academic writes of US detention 'hell' over link to 1979 hostage crisis

An Iranian woman detained for months in Texas has accused the US government of "bloodline punishment" after it revoked her family's green cards over her husband's ties to a prominent figure in Iran.

Maryam Tahmasebi, a professor of psychology and statistics in Los Angeles, her husband, Seyed Eissa Hashemi, and their teenage son - all permanent residents of the US - were detained by immigration agents in April.

Her husband's mother was a spokesperson for the group that took dozens of Americans captive during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.

The State department has cited those ties as the reason for revoking the family's status.

Tahmasebi and her son remain at a detention centre in Dilley, Texas, while her husband endures "horrible conditions" at a separate South Texas Detention Facility in Pearsall, she wrote in The Nation magazine , external .

"We have been put through hell for the past four months, and our physical and mental health have deteriorated in ways that might not be reversible for years," Tahmasebi wrote.

Tahmasebi wrote her account from inside her detention facility, where she has limited access to email, according to Jack Mirkinson, a senior editor at The Nation.

Hashemi is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, who became known as "Screaming Mary" or "Sister Mary" for her English-language statements on behalf of the students who occupied the US embassy in Iran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Ebtekar later went on to hold several Iranian government roles. She was most recently vice president for women and family affairs, but has not held a government role since 2021.

"The government had decided to punish my husband for being the son of a woman who was a translator for the Iranian hostage takers in 1979, before Eissa was even born," Tahmasebi wrote.

"I came here because I wanted to build a life for myself and my family that was defined by my own actions, not anyone else's," she wrote. "But now our lives are being upended for something someone else did nearly 50 years ago."

The US decision to revoke the family's status came amid several enforcement actions taken against relatives of regime officials, as US hostilities with Iran escalated this year.

At the same time, amid Iran's brutal crackdown on protesters months ago, some diaspora activists identified relatives of Iranian officials abroad and campaigned to revoke their legal status.

An online petition in January 2026 called for Hashemi's deportation from the US due to his mother's involvement in the hostage crisis. A few conservative US outlets carried reports from outside Hashemi's residence in the US in April.