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Posted on 04/05/2026 12:44:34 PM PDT by MeanWestTexan
LONDON: A post on Saturday by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ignited a social media firestorm with the announcement that two women with ties to the Iranian regime were in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, awaiting deportation.
The State Department later confirmed that Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, and Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25 — the niece and grandniece of slain Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani — had lost their lawful permanent resident status and faced arrest.
Rubio’s post on X described the pair as “green card holders living lavishly” in the US, a characterization quickly reinforced by images drawn from Hosseiny’s since-deleted Instagram account.
The photos showed nightclub visits in Miami, a trip to Alaska and Las Vegas celebrations — a portrait of excess that stood in sharp contrast to the severe restrictions placed on women back home in Iran.
The juxtaposition grew starker still when set against the events of Sept. 13, 2022. That day, photos showed Hosseiny and her mother browsing Rodeo Drive and the luxury boutiques of Beverly Hills.
Thousands of miles away in Tehran, morality police stopped 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini near a metro station for allegedly wearing her headscarf, or hijab, improperly.
Officers forced her into a van for what authorities called dress code “re-education.” Witnesses said she was assaulted but officials denied it.
Amini collapsed in custody, fell into a coma at Kasra Hospital and died three days later, igniting nationwide protests over her treatment at the hands of the state.
That history gave Rubio’s post a raw edge when it resurfaced Hosseiny’s images. The contrast — elite Iranian relatives living freely abroad while women at home face brutality for minor dress infractions — drew immediate and widespread condemnation online.
“They curse the West for its decadence, then send their kids — and even relatives like the daughter or sister of Qassem Soleimani — to London and Los Angeles to indulge in every forbidden pleasure,” Rabyaah Althaibani, a Yemeni American community organizer, said in a post on X.
“They stone women for showing a single strand of hair, while their own kin strut through Europe and America in designer clothes, free from the chains they forge for others.”
Video footage sharpened the backlash. One clip showed Soleimani Afshar praising the death of US soldiers in battle, another showed her in a black leather bodysuit astride a motorcycle, an American flag visible behind her.
“As identified by both press reporting and her own social media commentary, Soleimani Afshar is an outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran,” the US State Department said.
It also said she had “praised the new Iranian Supreme Leader,” Mojtaba Khamenei and “denounced America as the ‘Great Satan.’”
Iranian state media pushed back swiftly, quoting Zeinab Soleimani, the youngest daughter of the late IRGC general, denying any family connection to the detained women.
“The individuals arrested in the United States have no relation whatsoever to the family of Martyr Soleimani, and the claim by the US State Department is a lie,” she wrote in a social media post cited by Iranian state media.
“They have become so weak and helpless that, by fabricating lies against a great figure like Haj Qassem, they seek to divert global public opinion from their defeat against the Iranian nation.”
Qassem Soleimani led Iran’s Quds Force, the IRGC’s external operations arm that orchestrates regional proxy wars. US forces killed him in a January 2020 drone strike near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.
Still, bikini-clad photos of Hosseiny fueled comments about Iranian women assaulted and jailed for less.
Those reactions carried the weight of recent history. Amini’s 2022 death had sparked the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement — a sweeping uprising that IRGC forces ultimately crushed, killing hundreds of protesters in the process.
The regime’s repression has since surged. Late last year saw widespread economic protests that left thousands dead and resulted in mass arrests.
After joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, which marked the start of open hostilities among the three nations, Iranian authorities detained more than 20,000 people, including activists, journalists, ethnic minorities and those accused of collaboration, with calls for executions rising sharply.
The crackdown on women’s rights has continued throughout. Although no firm count exists for activists detained on immorality charges, the arrest last week of prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh underscored the reach of the state’s enforcement apparatus.
Human Rights Watch has described the overall situation as a “tsunami” of detentions, disappearances and hijab enforcement.
On Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security shared on X the immigration timeline of Soleimani Afshar and Hosseiny.
According to the post, Soleimani Afshar entered the US in June 2015 on a tourist visa, later claimed asylum and received that status in 2019. She was issued a green card in 2021 under the Biden administration. In July last year she filed a naturalization application in which she disclosed she had traveled to Iran at least four times since receiving the green card.
“Her trips to Iran illustrate her asylum claims were fraudulent,” the post said.
Hosseiny followed a similar trajectory. She arrived in the US on a student visa in July 2015, was granted asylum by an immigration judge in 2019 and became a green card holder in 2023.
The cases fit a pattern that extends well beyond the Soleimani family. The New York Post has documented multiple instances of senior Iranian officials’ children who moved to the US to study or work.
The State Department has already revoked legal status for the daughter and son-in-law of Ali Larijani, a senior Iranian security official killed in a March 17 Israeli strike. Both are barred from reentering the US. Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani taught at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute until her visa was canceled.
The others are Leila Khatami, daughter of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who lectured in mathematics at Union College; and Zeinab Hajjarian, daughter of security veteran Saeed Hajjarian, who held a position at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
“The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes,” Rubio wrote.
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The Democrats are expecting foreign help to Beat Trump, including from Iran.
First post, and already a thread winner!
They’re calling him Marty?
“What a scam.”
We detained them for deportation while they are hunting down Americans in Iran to kill them. Hardly seems balanced. But the thread article comes from Arab News. That should explain it.
wy69
Some judge will try to overturn the order.
“They’re calling him Marty?”
The Iranian spokesman quoted says that, yes. What’s the surprise?
“But the thread article comes from Arab News. That should explain it.”
The article is all about how it’s a scam and a double standard. Not sure your point.
The Arab News, BTW, is the semi-official news of Saudi Arabia. Definately states the preferred view of the Royal Family, but is far more pro-Trump, and pro-American, than our own MSM.
There was a minor X brouhauhau when a leftist posted why do Iranian women want to dress like hookers? Much like in the old days Catholic school girls would frizz their hair, apply make up, lipstick and wear mini skirts to YMCA dances to defy the prudish dress codes imposed on them. I sympathized with their quest for freedom.
“’m curious as to how Soleimani’s relatives were able to claim asylum...in 2019.”
I’m not. It’s a broken system, barely getting fixed.
I wondered that also. If their lives were in danger why did they travel back and forth to and from Iran.
I understand many Somalian “refugees” who fled Somali in fear of losing their lives also travel back and forth to and from Somalia, some with suitcases filled with US dollars.
“ I wondered that also. If their lives were in danger why did they travel back and forth to and from Iran.”
Hence why they are being deported. Says so in article.
Probably didn’t help their case they posted they want American soldiers to die.
“social media firestorm” = I read a post where somebody was pissed off like me.
” One clip showed Soleimani Afshar praising the death of US soldiers in battle,”
Dunno. I’m thinking someone like that should not be in our country.
They should have been SWAT raided and POW, POW, POW for resisting. Let some leftist judge try to reverse that.
Gee, who should I believe here, Marco Rubio or the lying Islamic State of Iran?
I suspect there was humor hiding in that post from HIDEK6 somewhere!
Yo, Arab News, how are those female soccer players doing in Iran? They over their jet lag yet? Or are they still bringing raped with foreign objects and not yet available for comment?
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