She is currently a full-time professor in the Immunology Department of the School of Medical Sciences at Tarbiat Modares University in the city of Tehran.

During the Iran hostage crisis, which began in November 1979 and ended in January 1981, Ebtekar was the spokesperson for the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line.

However, despite her views, Ebtekar's oldest son Eissa Hashemi has been residing in the United States since the early 2010s, prompting criticism from opponents of the Islamic Republic government.

Later after graduation as a student, she became a supporter of the political Islam of Ali Shariati and began wearing a traditional black chador covering everything except her face.

Ebtekar has served as faculty member at Tarbiat Modares University, which is a postgraduate academic center located in Tehran.

The review paper, on cytokines and air pollution, was published in 2006 in the Iran Journal of Allergy Asthma Immunology (IJAAI) 5 47-56:2006.

[17] A couple weeks after the eTBLAST report, Nature covered the story, quoting one of the authors of original papers, (Ian Mudway, a toxicologist at the King's College London) as saying, "the article is a veritable patchwork of other people's work, word for word, grammatical error for grammatical error."

Ebtekar spoke in the opening ceremony and introduced Swiss immunologist Rolf Zinkernagel, the Nobel Laureate for Medicine, as the guest of honour.

[citation needed] Ebtekar served as a moderator in June 2008 at the International "Women, Equality and Peace" Conference held in Oslo, Norway.

[29] Western media have systematically depicted Ebtekar's involvement in a negative manner, as Reed describes: "For twenty years the prevailing 'globalized' version of the embassy capture has cast the students at best as well-intentioned but naive young people manipulated ...and at worst as irresponsible extremists.

"[30] Elaine Sciolino wrote about Ebtekar's own viewpoint: "Asked by an ABC News correspondent one day whether she could see herself picking up a gun and killing the hostages, she replied: 'yes.

[citation needed] She was an advisor of Shahla Habibi, head of the 'Bureau of Women's Affairs' under administration Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the 1990s, and was reportedly the "main driving-force" behind the office.

[10] Ebtekar headed the Department of Environment for eight years, introducing major structural, organizational and directional changes enabling a re-engineering of the government body.

"[38] In her memoirs published as the "Grapes of Shahrivar", Ebtekar repeatedly refers to her cordial and official contacts with not only Western Ambassadors, but also many European Ministers and Presidents as well.

Her performance caused comment by members of the Western news media in attendance as she herself was wearing a chador, a reminder of compulsory hijab in Iran which many in the West view as a violation of women's rights.

[43] She established and heads the Tehran City Council Environment Committee and currently runs 20 working groups on environmental issues.

After election to the City Council of Tehran in early 2007, Ebtekar began a weblog in Persian entitled "EbtekareSabz" under the free blog service Persianblog.

[46] In 2009, the New York Times described her as "informally represent[ing] the views of many of the former hostage-takers", supporting "engagement with the West" and a renewal of the "original ideals of the revolution, including justice and freedom," which many of her peers believe have been abandoned by the current regime.

[48] Ebtekar mentioned her harsh criticism of government policies leading to air pollution and the deterioration of environmental standards as the main reason for her disqualification.

[50] During this period in spite of immense challenges facing Iran's environment, and irrespective of the fierce opposition of rival political and special interests groups, great strides were taken to enhance environmental governance and stewardship.

[51] Twelve environmental bills, a strong chapter in the sixth National Development Plan and numerous directives and guidelines were implemented during this period, while national plans to enhance air quality were promoted through strong cross-sectoral, management leading to better air quality trends.

[56] A significant surge in the quantity and quality of civil society activism was the result of planning for enhanced nongovernmental organization participation in policy and oversight.

[57] Nature Rangers enjoyed high quality training and education programs while awareness campaigns led to improvements in their social status.

[68] During the four years of Ebtekar's tenure the following measures were taken: 1) Adoption of 176 indicators for Gender Equity in the National Headquarters for Women and Family [69] 2) Based on local Status of women's statistics and Gender Equity Indicators each of the 31 Provinces of Iran adopted a provincial Plan for Women and Family Advancement [70] 3) Progress on the advancement of Gender Equity Indicators and provincial plans was monitored through an online monitoring system.

[81] During this term for the first time, more than 900 by-laws and regulations related to women and family, some dating back several decades were codified, nullified or endorsed and finally adopted in the Cabinet.

[84] 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.

[90] On 29 November 2014, Masoumeh Ebtekar won the Italian Minerva Award for her scientific achievements and successful career in political arena.

The Minerva Award has been presented to famous figures active in different social, economic, political and cultural fields, and the receivers have been mainly women.

[91][92][93] In May 2016 Ebtekar was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Political Science by the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea.