The daughter of one of the Iranian regime’s most powerful officials has left the United States and has been barred from reentering after being fired from the medical faculty at Atlanta, Georgia’s Emory University earlier this year.
Dr. Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, whose father, Ali Larijani, served as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council before being killed in a U.S. airstrike, was removed from her post as an assistant professor at the university in January following a public backlash triggered by the brutal regime’s mass murder of protestors, the California Post reported at the time.
“She and her husband, Seyed Kalantar Motamedi, are no longer in the country and have been barred from reentry. Officials said both were removed as part of a hardline crackdown on individuals linked to anti-American regimes,” the Post reported Saturday.
Her father was considered a close confident of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike with many other top members of the regime as they met the morning of February 28.
Larijani then was briefly seen as the de facto leader of Iran as Operation Epic Fury unfolded, the New York Times reported.
His tenure did not last long. Another Israeli airstrike on March 17 took him out, also killing Dr. Larijani’s brother, Morteza.
The federal government revoked Dr. Larijani and her husband’s legal status earlier this month as part of a broad crackdown on foreign nationals with ties to Iranian leaders and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has been named a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
The backlash in January included a petition signed by more than 100,000 people and a demonstration outside an Emory University medical center, with protestors waving signs that declared statements such as, “Did you know Iran terror chief’s daughter is your co-worker?”
The Winship Cancer Institute is highlighted as one of the university’s gems, known for its research into the disease and its development of cutting-edge cancer treatments for its patients.
Momentum for the physician’s ouster was amplified when Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) wrote to Emory and the Georgia Medical Board demanding that Ardeshir-Larijani be fired and stripped of her medical license.
The Georgia congressman argued the country’s institutions should not serve as a “safe harbor” for individuals tied to hostile regimes, according to the Post, and that the physician was a “national security risk.”
Dr. Larijani reportedly received legal status with a green card in 2021 under President Joe Biden’s administration, the Post reported.
In January, well before the military operation on Iran, the U.S. Treasury Department levied sanctions against her father for being “one of the first Iranian leaders to call for violence in response to the legitimate demands of the Iranian people.”
The department sanctioned 18 other officials it charged were laundering petroleum money as part of “shadow banking” networks instead of using it for “the benefit of the Iranian people.”
“While his daughter was living the American dream, treating patients and researching developmental therapeutics from Atlanta, Larijani was allegedly terrorizing the people of Tehran and labeling the US the ‘Great Satan,’” the Post wrote when it broke the story about the doctor’s ouster in January.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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