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On [[International Women's Day]] in 1998, Dr. Ebtekar (then vice-president of environmental affairs) made an impassioned speech condemning the [[Taliban treatment of women|horrific oppression of women]] by the [[Taliban|Taliban Movement]] in [[Afghanistan]]. Under the Taliban, women were forced to wear heavy burkas that covered their faces and were never allowed out without a male escort. Her performance caused comment by members of the Western [[news media]] in attendence as she herself was wearing a [[chador]], a reminder of cumpulsory hijab in Iran which many in the West view as a violation of women's rights.
On [[International Women's Day]] in 1998, Dr. Ebtekar (then vice-president of environmental affairs) made an impassioned speech condemning the [[Taliban treatment of women|horrific oppression of women]] by the [[Taliban|Taliban Movement]] in [[Afghanistan]]. Under the Taliban, women were forced to wear heavy burkas that covered their faces and were never allowed out without a male escort. Her performance caused comment by members of the Western [[news media]] in attendence as she herself was wearing a [[chador]], a reminder of cumpulsory hijab in Iran which many in the West view as a violation of women's rights.


In America her appointment and uncovering of her past led to a question of whether President Khatami was aware of "how deeply" the hostage taking and holding, and anger toward's its foremost public defender "affected both the American government and the American people."<ref>"Top Woman in Iran's Government Once Spoke for Hostage-Takers," ''New York Times'', January 28, 1998, p.A6</ref> Many academics and literary critiques have written and expressed their views on these memoirs.[dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=2419961 -]
In America her appointment and uncovering of her past led to a question of whether President Khatami was aware of "how deeply" the hostage taking and holding, and anger toward's its foremost public defender "affected both the American government and the American people."<ref>"Top Woman in Iran's Government Once Spoke for Hostage-Takers," ''New York Times'', January 28, 1998, p.A6</ref> Many academics and literary critiques have written and expressed their views on these memoirs.[<ref>dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=2419961 -]</ref>


===Post-vice-presidential environmental activism===
===Post-vice-presidential environmental activism===
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Dr. Ebtekar ran for and was elected to the [[City Council of Tehran|city council of Tehran]] for the term beginning in 2007, coming in 9th out of 21 candidates, just after [[Parvin Ahmadinejad]], the sister of the current President of Iran.<ref>[http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0612218438094545.htm Final result of Tehran City Council election, December 21, 2006]{{Dead link|date=November 2008}}</ref> She established and heads the Tehran City Council Environment Committee and currently runs 20 working groups on environmental issues.
Dr. Ebtekar ran for and was elected to the [[City Council of Tehran|city council of Tehran]] for the term beginning in 2007, coming in 9th out of 21 candidates, just after [[Parvin Ahmadinejad]], the sister of the current President of Iran.<ref>[http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0612218438094545.htm Final result of Tehran City Council election, December 21, 2006]{{Dead link|date=November 2008}}</ref> She established and heads the Tehran City Council Environment Committee and currently runs 20 working groups on environmental issues.

==Women as Presidential Candidates==

During the Tenth Presidential Elections Campaign in April 2009 after Guardian Council officials indicated that women may also run in the presidential election campaign, news reports indicated that Dr. Ebtekar may stand for candidacy. In subsequent interviews, she noted that since this was an important breakthrough in Iranian history she would consider the proposals given to her seriously. <ref>http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=192200</ref> Dr. Ebtekar also wrote on this matter in Persian Paradox ( her English weblog) and the matter recieved widespread coverage in BBC Persian and VOA news channels. ( April 2009)


===Academic Career and Research===
===Academic Career and Research===
Line 61: Line 65:
''Natural Peace,'' a collection of essays and speeches on the environment and sustainable development delivered from 1997-2005 by Ebtekar, was published in 2005 by the Iranian Department of Environment. <ref>These speeches include titles such as Human Rights and Challenges of the Century, Perspectives on Sustainable Development and the Role of the Woman in Iranian Society, etc. She also had two articles from ''Natural Peace'' published in ''Our Planet'', the Magazine of the United Nations Environment Program (in 2005), and ''Market Messengers'' (in 2006). www.unep.org</ref>
''Natural Peace,'' a collection of essays and speeches on the environment and sustainable development delivered from 1997-2005 by Ebtekar, was published in 2005 by the Iranian Department of Environment. <ref>These speeches include titles such as Human Rights and Challenges of the Century, Perspectives on Sustainable Development and the Role of the Woman in Iranian Society, etc. She also had two articles from ''Natural Peace'' published in ''Our Planet'', the Magazine of the United Nations Environment Program (in 2005), and ''Market Messengers'' (in 2006). www.unep.org</ref>


==Questions about plagiarism =
Questions about plagiarism
On October 7, 2008, [[eTBLAST]] recognized an article published by Masoumeh Ebtekar in 2006 at the ''Iran Journal of Allergy Asthma Immunol'' as an 85% duplication of several previously published articles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://spore.swmed.edu/dejavu/duplicate/9866/ |title=Entry 9866 information &#124; Deja vu > Browse |publisher=Spore.swmed.edu |date= |accessdate=2008-11-18}}</ref> eTBLAST is a text similarity [[search engine]] on [[MEDLINE]] database sponsored by the Innovation Laboratory at the [[University of Texas Southwestern Medical School]] to study the scientific publication ethics.
On October 7, 2008, [[eTBLAST]] recognized an article published by Masoumeh Ebtekar in 2006 at the ''Iran Journal of Allergy Asthma Immunol'' as an 85% duplication of several previously published articles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://spore.swmed.edu/dejavu/duplicate/9866/ |title=Entry 9866 information &#124; Deja vu > Browse |publisher=Spore.swmed.edu |date= |accessdate=2008-11-18}}</ref> eTBLAST is a text similarity [[search engine]] on [[MEDLINE]] database sponsored by the Innovation Laboratory at the [[University of Texas Southwestern Medical School]] to study the scientific publication ethics.
This allegation received a level of political and public attention in Iran<ref>{{cite web|url=http://alef.ir/content/view/32958/ |title=Alef.ir |publisher=Alef.ir |date= |accessdate=2008-11-18}}</ref> and resulted in Ebtekar's response in her personal weblog accepting the mistake, apologizing for it, but criticizing eTBLAST on several notes including not informing her of their finding in advance and not letting her publish her response in the same page where the allegation is made. Also Dr. Ebtekar made the point that the article was a review article she was invited to write for the Journal and that more than 76 references were given in the text.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://greenebtekar.persianblog.ir/post/232/ |title=ابتكار سبز >> بازگشت از بارسلون و پاسخ به یک ادعا |publisher=Greenebtekar.persianblog.ir |date= |accessdate=2008-11-18}}</ref>
This allegation received a level of political and public attention in Iran<ref>{{cite web|url=http://alef.ir/content/view/32958/ |title=Alef.ir |publisher=Alef.ir |date= |accessdate=2008-11-18}}</ref> and resulted in Ebtekar's response in her personal weblog accepting the mistake, apologizing for it, but criticizing eTBLAST on several notes including not informing her of their finding in advance and not letting her publish her response in the same page where the allegation is made. Also Dr. Ebtekar made the point that the article was a review article she was invited to write for the Journal and that more than 76 references were given in the text.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://greenebtekar.persianblog.ir/post/232/ |title=ابتكار سبز >> بازگشت از بارسلون و پاسخ به یک ادعا |publisher=Greenebtekar.persianblog.ir |date= |accessdate=2008-11-18}}</ref>

Revision as of 19:11, 29 April 2009

Masoumeh Ebtekar (Template:Lang-fa; born 1960) is an Iranian scientist and politician. Ebtekar first achieved fame as the spokeswoman of the students who had occupied the US Embassy in 1979 and held 50+ embassy diplomats and staff hostage for over a year. Later she became the first female Vice President of Iran, the head of the Environment Protection Organization of Iran during the administration of President Mohammad Khatami, and is currently a city councilwoman elect of Tehran.[1] She is a founding member of the Iranian reformist political party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front.[citation needed]

Her name as inscribed in her national identification credentials ( Birth Date 1339, ID 1014 , Issued in Tehran) is Massoumeh. She is known as Nilofar among friends and relatives.[2] Ebtekar is married and has two children.

Education and family

Ebtekar's father studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and she is reported to have lived with her parents in Upper Darby of Philadelphia for 3 years.[2] Another source lists her have having lived in Philadelphia for six years as a child, from whence she developed "near-perfect, American-accented English." [3]

Ebtekar holds a BSc degree in laboratory science from Shahid Beheshti University, a MSc and PhD in immunology from Tarbiat Modares University in 1995, where she still teaches.

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 where she listed the 'crimes' of America and denounced the hostages as spies who should be put on trial.

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.'[4]

Ebtekar 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 [5]

When asked by an American interviewer (Elaine Sciolino) in the late 1990s about her past as spokeswoman for the hostage-taker, why it did not appear on her resume, and why she had changed her name from Nilofar to Masoumeh, Ebtekar "had no appology [sic] and made no excuses" about her role[6] 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." [7]

Social and Government career

In 1981, Ebtekar became the editor-in-chief of the English daily newspaper Kayhan International, selected by Khatami who was then the representative of Ayatollah Khomeini in Kayhan Institute. She served in the newspaper until 1983. In 1991 she co-founded the Institute for Women's Studies and Research. Since 1992, she has been the license holder and managing director of the journal Farzaneh for Women's Studies and Research. Ebtekar was appointed as the Head of Women's NGO Coordinating Office and Vice Head of the National Committee to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Laterو she was elected as the President of the Network of Women's NGOs in Iran.

As vice president

Dr. Ebtekar is a founding member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front,[citation needed] a reformist party, and became the was the first woman to serve as Vice-President of Iran when the reformists came to power. Along with Zahra Shojaei, Dr. Ebtekar participated in the first cabinet since the Islamic Revolution to include women. She has been described as a leftist in Mohammad Khatami's alliance.[8]

On International Women's Day in 1998, Dr. Ebtekar (then vice-president of environmental affairs) made an impassioned speech condemning the horrific oppression of women by the Taliban Movement in Afghanistan. Under the Taliban, women were forced to wear heavy burkas that covered their faces and were never allowed out without a male escort. Her performance caused comment by members of the Western news media in attendence as she herself was wearing a chador, a reminder of cumpulsory hijab in Iran which many in the West view as a violation of women's rights.

In America her appointment and uncovering of her past led to a question of whether President Khatami was aware of "how deeply" the hostage taking and holding, and anger toward's its foremost public defender "affected both the American government and the American people."[9] Many academics and literary critiques have written and expressed their views on these memoirs.[[10]

Post-vice-presidential environmental activism

Dr. Ebtekar was named one of the seven 2006 Champions of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Program as a prominent and "inspirational" environmental leader who has made an impact at policy level in a region of the world.[11][12] She was also named as one of 50 environmental leaders by the The Guardian newspaper in January 5, 2008 - the only Iranian or Muslim woman in the list.[citation needed]

Dr. Ebtekar co-founded the Center for Peace and Environment in 2005, a non-governmental organization devoted to the promotion of just and sustainable peace and the protection of the environment. Over 120 experts and academicians are currently members of the Center.[citation needed]

Tehran City Council member

Dr. Ebtekar ran for and was elected to the city council of Tehran for the term beginning in 2007, coming in 9th out of 21 candidates, just after Parvin Ahmadinejad, the sister of the current President of Iran.[13] She established and heads the Tehran City Council Environment Committee and currently runs 20 working groups on environmental issues.

Women as Presidential Candidates

During the Tenth Presidential Elections Campaign in April 2009 after Guardian Council officials indicated that women may also run in the presidential election campaign, news reports indicated that Dr. Ebtekar may stand for candidacy. In subsequent interviews, she noted that since this was an important breakthrough in Iranian history she would consider the proposals given to her seriously. [14] Dr. Ebtekar also wrote on this matter in Persian Paradox ( her English weblog) and the matter recieved widespread coverage in BBC Persian and VOA news channels. ( April 2009)

Academic Career and Research

Current fields of teaching at MSc and PhD levels include, immunology of the nervous system, cytokines as biological mediators, immunology of HIV /AIDs, and psychoneuroimmunology. Her research work includes areas such as immunomodulation, neuroimmunology, cytokine patterns, modulation of cord blood cells and DNA vaccines. Dr. Ebtekar has published several ISI articles on the above topics and her name appears as co-author in several original research works. Dr. Ebtekar is also member of several research board committees and is a reviewer for two international and four national immunology journals. This information is available at the website of [Tarbiat Modares University www.modares.ac.ir].

After the termination of her government position in 2005 Dr. Ebtekar has spoken as inaugural or keynote speaker at many international events.[15]

Natural Peace, a collection of essays and speeches on the environment and sustainable development delivered from 1997-2005 by Ebtekar, was published in 2005 by the Iranian Department of Environment. [16]

Questions about plagiarism On October 7, 2008, eTBLAST recognized an article published by Masoumeh Ebtekar in 2006 at the Iran Journal of Allergy Asthma Immunol as an 85% duplication of several previously published articles.[17] eTBLAST is a text similarity search engine on MEDLINE database sponsored by the Innovation Laboratory at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School to study the scientific publication ethics. This allegation received a level of political and public attention in Iran[18] and resulted in Ebtekar's response in her personal weblog accepting the mistake, apologizing for it, but criticizing eTBLAST on several notes including not informing her of their finding in advance and not letting her publish her response in the same page where the allegation is made. Also Dr. Ebtekar made the point that the article was a review article she was invited to write for the Journal and that more than 76 references were given in the text.[19]

On October 23, 2008, Vol 455 Nature magazine covered this case in a short story titled "Iranian paper sparks sense of Deja Vu". In an interiew with Ian Mudway, a toxicologist at the King's College London and one of the authors of original papers plagiarized by Ebtekar, he said: "The article is a veritable patchwork of other people's work, word for word, grammatical error for grammatical error." It reported that Ebtekar has not answered emails from Nature.[20] Ebtekar apologized for her plagiarism again at a public gathering about the US embassy hostage crisis held in Shiraz University saying: "I apologize, humans are not prudent from mistakes." [21]

Sources

  1. ^ dead link[dead link‍]
  2. ^ a b "A Brief History of Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania". Archives.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  3. ^ Sciolino, Elaine, Persian Mirrors : the Elusive Face of Iran, Free Press, (2005), p.116
  4. ^ Sciolino, Persian Mirrors, (2005), p.116-118
  5. ^ (ISBN 0-88922-443-9), published in 2000 by Talonbooks. The Farsi translation of this book was published in Tehran by Etellaat Newspaper Publications the same year and the Arabic translation was published in Beirut by Al Hadi Publications.
  6. ^ "Top Woman in Iran's Government Once Spoke for Hostage-Takers", New York Times, January 28, 1998, p.A6
  7. ^ Sciolino, Persian Mirrors (2005), p.116-118
  8. ^ Sciolino, Persian Mirrors (2005), p.116
  9. ^ "Top Woman in Iran's Government Once Spoke for Hostage-Takers," New York Times, January 28, 1998, p.A6
  10. ^ dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=2419961 -]
  11. ^ Seven environmental heroes to be honoured by UN agency
  12. ^ BaniComm Co. "Iranian Students News Agency (in Persian)". Isna.ir. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  13. ^ Final result of Tehran City Council election, December 21, 2006[dead link‍]
  14. ^ http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=192200
  15. ^
    1. International Conference on Women and Tradition , University of Damascus, Damascus, 2005
    2. International Conference on Women and the Alliance of Civilizations, Istanbul, 2005
    3. Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, Delhi ,2006 and in 2008
    4. Earth Dialogues, Brisbane, Australia, 2006
    5. International Conference on Role of Women in the Middle East, Kuwait University, Kuwait, 2006
    6. World Environment Day Conference on Sustainable Development , Tromso, Norway ,2007
    7. Religion Science Environment Conference on Arctic the Mirror of Life , Greenland ,2007
    8. Global Summit for Businesswomen and Leaders, Dubai in 2007 and 2008
    9. International Workshop on Islam- West Dialogue, Geneva , 2008.
    10. International Seminar of Women, Equality and Peace, 2008
    11. International IUCN Congress Barcelona, 2008
    12. International Conference on Religion in A Modern World, Tehran , 2008.
  16. ^ These speeches include titles such as Human Rights and Challenges of the Century, Perspectives on Sustainable Development and the Role of the Woman in Iranian Society, etc. She also had two articles from Natural Peace published in Our Planet, the Magazine of the United Nations Environment Program (in 2005), and Market Messengers (in 2006). www.unep.org
  17. ^ "Entry 9866 information | Deja vu > Browse". Spore.swmed.edu. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  18. ^ "Alef.ir". Alef.ir. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  19. ^ "ابتكار سبز >> بازگشت از بارسلون و پاسخ به یک ادعا". Greenebtekar.persianblog.ir. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  20. ^ http://alef.ir/images/stories/you_alefusers_onnature.jpg
  21. ^ "ابتكار: از بابت جعل مقاله عذر مي خواهم". Rajanews.com. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
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