One of the many photos Hamideh Soleimani Afshar posted on her since deleted Instagram page.
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(LA Times, CBS News) – The niece and grand-niece of deceased Iranian Revolutionary Guard Major Gen. Qasem Soleimani were arrested Friday night after their U.S. permanent resident status was terminated.
The State Department said Saturday in a statement that Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter Sarinasadat Hosseiny are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Soleimani Afshar “promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks against American soldiers and military facilities in the Middle East, praised the new Iranian Supreme Leader, denounced America as the ‘Great Satan,’ and voiced her unflinching support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terror organization.” She did all this “while enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles, as attested to by her frequent posting on her recently deleted Instagram account.”
Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, the niece of Iranian Revolutionary General Qasem Soleimani lived lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles while promoting Iranian regime propaganda and celebrating attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Secretary Rubio noted on X: “The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.”
“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 U.S. State Department also said in a statement.
Soleimani Afshar’s posts on Instagram and Twitter, captured and republished by numerous news outlets, point to at least the appearance of a life of luxury. Soleimani Afshar regularly published images and videos of herself in what appear to be designer clothes, engaging in activities associated with wealth, including riding in a Hummer and posing for glamour shots in short dresses. Her daughter Sarinasadat Hosseiny posted photos in a similar, though with even more provocative images.
The irony was not lost on some social media uawea who blasted Soleimani Afshar’s purported support for a regime that restricts women from showing their hair in public while she showed that and more on social media.
Iranian military leader Gen. Qasem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020. He was the architect of Iran’s regional terrorist activities and was hailed as a national icon among supporters of Iran’s theocracy. [Soleimani was leader of the elite Quds Force, the division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that conducts spying and terrorist operations outside Iran].
Iranian General Qasem Soleimani
After the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, American officials called for Soleimani’s killing over his role in arming terrorists in Iraq with penetrating roadside bombs [IEDs] that killed and maimed almost 2,000 U.S. troops.
Soleimani Afshar came to the U.S. in 2015 on a tourist visa and was granted asylum in 2019 and got her green card in 2021, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis previously said. Since then, she traveled to Iran four times, disclosing the information in her application last year to become a citizen, Bis said. Hosseiny, 25, came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2015 and was also granted asylum in 2019, then got her green card in 2023, Bis said.
Soleimani Afshar’s trips to Iran demonstrated her claims to need asylum in the U.S. were “fraudulent,” the Department of Homeland Security wrote in a statement on X. Her husband has also been barred from entering the U.S.
Soleimani Afshar and Hosseiny are being held in an ICE facility in Pearsall, Texas, according to a searchable database of detainees.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he also terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Larijani, [who was employed by Emory University School of Medicine as an associate professor] and her husband, Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani was killed in an airstrike last month. His daughter and husband are no longer in the country.
Compiled from articles published on April 6 at the Los Angeles Times and CBS News.
Questions
1. Who was Gen. Qasem Soleimani?
2. List the anti-American sentiments Hamideh Soleimani Afshar expressed while living a lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles on a fraudulent asylum claim.
3. Secretary Rubio posted on X: “The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.”
Why should every president, whether Democrat or Republican, have the same policy?
4. a) In what year and under what pretense did Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter Sarinasadat Hosseiny come to the U.S.
b) Both women were granted asylum in 2019. What is asylum? — For what reasons are foreigners granted asylum?
5. What evidence shows that Hamideh Soleimani Afshar’s asylum claim was fraudulent?
6. The State Department is said to be working on revoking the legal status of close to 4,000 Iranian elites linked to the regime currently living in the U.S. What do you think?
7. The Iranian regime officially mandates that all women wear a hijab (headscarf) and modest clothing in public, enforced strictly by law since 1983. The regime’s 2024 “hijab and chastity” law imposes severe penalties, including heavy fines, car impoundment, and long prison sentences, for women who violate these dress codes.
Explain the hypocrisy of the life Soleimani’s niece has been living in Los Angeles (that she acquired by fraudulently acquiring asylum and ultimately a green card) and her support for a terrorist regime that among other things, beats and/or jails women who refuse to cover their hair.
Background
From Jan. 2020
- What You Need to Know about Gen. Qasem Soleimani
- The events that led to US killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani
On April 4, Secretary Rubio wrote in a post on X:
Until recently, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were green card holders living lavishly in the United States.
Afshar is the niece of deceased Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani. She is also an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the “Great Satan.”
This week, I terminated both Afshar and her daughter’s legal status and they are now in ICE custody, pending removal from the United States.
The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.
Other Iranian regime relatives who are living and working at universities in the U.S. Larijani’s photo is crossed off because her legal status, as well as that of her husband, were terminated recently. They have therefore had to leave the country.
Resources
Report on removal of Soleimani’s relatives, April 7, 2026:
Soleimani niece trying to get out of ICE custody, April 8, 2026:
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