Takeover in Tehran The Inside Story of the 1970 U.S. Embassy Capture

In this first-ever insider account of the American Embassy takeover in 1979, Massoumeh Ebtekar sets out to correct twenty years of misrepresentation by the Western media of what the aims of the Iranian students and the populist revolution they personified were, and have since remained. AKAKShe also explains, in considerable detail, how one faction of the Shi'a clerical establishment came to see (with the eager complicity of the international media and its own pro-Western political agenda) these students as a vanguard of its own theocratic goals, rather than of the much broader cultural upheaval which had ousted the the regime of Shah Mohammad-Reza Pahlevi, installed through a US-sponsored coup in 1953. AKAKIn February, 2000, a month before US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's admission of active CIA involvement in the 1953 coup, Iranians flocked to the polls to elect the Islamic Republic's sixth parliament: 70% of the candidates elected are self-proclaimed "reformers. "Among them are several of the former students who seized and occupied the American Embassy in November, 1979. These reformers, followers of President Mohammad Khatamióhimself a Shi'a clergymanóare now attempting to pry open the vise-grip of the conservative religious faction on Iranian politics since 1979, and to establish a civil society within an Islamic framework.AKAKThis book is essential reading for anyone interested in the international phenomenon of peoples attempting to preserve their independence and culture from the overwhelming hegemony of the United States in the community of nations, and in how the "independent "American media continues to play an active role as an instrument of American foreign policy. It is also required reading for those seeking to understand the impact of political developments in Iran on US-Iran relations.AKAK AKAKAKMassoumeh Ebtekar during the Embassy Takeover in 1979.AKAK AKAKDr. Massoumeh Ebtekar, although invisible to the international media for twenty years, is well known in the West. As a young chemical engineering student, she quickly joined the young men and women from four Tehran universities who captured the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. Given the anglicized name "Mary "by the mediaófor the traditional Islamic name Maryamóher presence on the television news became instantly recognizable throughout the "hostage crisis "which ensued. As its primary spokesperson, hers became the public face of the fledgling Iranian revolution.AKAKSince then, she has become the mother of two children; the Editorial Director of Farzaneh, a Journal of Women's Studies and Research; received her Ph.D. in Immunology; been an outspoken advocate of women's rights, particularly in Islamic societies; in 1997, was appointed by president Khatami as the first woman ever to hold a cabinet portfolio in Iran. Currently, she is vice-president, and head of the Department of the Environment, as well as a leader of the country's reform movement.AKAKAKAK--------------------------------------------------------------------------------AKAKAKISBN 0-88922-443-9; $18.95 Cdn / $14.95 U.S.A.AKAK©2000; non-fiction; 224 ppAKAKAKAK--------------------------------------------------------------------------------AKAKAKOrder TalonbooksEbtekar, Massoumeh is the author of 'Takeover in Tehran The Inside Story of the 1970 U.S. Embassy Capture', published 2001 under ISBN 9780889224438 and ISBN 0889224439.