Betty Mahmoody
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Betty Mahmoody | |
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| Born | June 9, 1945 Alma, Michigan |
| Occupation(s) | Author, public speaker |
| Known for | Author of Not Without my Daughter |
Betty Mahmoody (born June 9, 1945 in Alma, Michigan) is an American author and public speaker best known for her book, Not Without My Daughter, which was subsequently made into a film of the same name. She is the President and co-founder of One World: For Children, an organization that promotes understanding between cultures and strives to offer security and protection to children of bi-cultural marriages.
Not Without My Daughter
Her book Not Without My Daughter is an account of her experiences in 1984–1986, when she left Alpena, Michigan, to go to Iran with her husband and daughter for what she was promised would be a short visit. Once there, she and her daughter were held against their will. The book was made into a 1991 film starring Sally Field as Betty.
According to the book, she and her husband, Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody, and her daughter, Mahtob Mahmoody, traveled to Iran in August 1984 for what her husband said would be a two-week visit with his family in Tehran. Once the two weeks were over, however, he refused to allow his wife and child to leave. Mahmoody became trapped in a nation that was hostile to Americans, a family hostile to her, and an abusive husband. According to the book, her husband separated her from her daughter for weeks on end. He also assaulted her, and threatened to kill her if she tried to leave.[1]
She eventually escaped with her daughter. The book details her 500 mi (800 km) escape to Turkey through the snowy Iranian mountains, and the help she received from many Iranians.[2][3] After returning to America in 1986, Betty filed for divorce.
Other books
Betty Mahmoody compiled stories of other parents whose foreign spouses estranged them from their children in the book For the Love of a Child (1992).
Cultural Depiction and Fictional Representation
Mahmoody depicted Iranians as barbaric, claiming that they ate "worms" with their rice, with critics claiming that she was capitalizing on the Anti-Iranian "wave" that started with the Shah's departure from Iran. One critic in particular, Jack Shaheen, pointed out that her depiction of Muslims as well as Iranians were highly inaccurate, as well as racist. The aim seems to be to generate hatred towards Iranians and other ethnic groups, rather than tell a story. [4]
Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody
Alexis Kouros collaborated with Mahmoody's ex-husband to create a documentary, Without My Daughter, to counter the claims in Betty's book. The documentary shows the amount of racism and hysterical Anti-Iranian measures taken by the media post 1979.
On August 23, 2009, Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody died in Tehran, Iran, aged 70. The state news agency IRNA quoted his nephew, Majid Ghodsi, as reporting that he died in a hospital from kidney problems and other complications.
See also
- Phyllis Chesler, who was married to a Westernized Muslim man from Afghanistan
- Aurora Nilsson
- Debbie Rodriguez
References
- ^ Brophy Champion, Allison (November 2, 2008). "Not afraid of change". Star Exponent. Archived from the original on 2010-09-03. Retrieved 2012-08-19.
- ^ Mahmoody, B. (1991), Not Without My Daughter, St. Martin's Paperbacks; Mti edition.
- ^ "Biography of Betty Mahmoody". AEI Speakers Bureau. Archived from the original on September 20, 2010.
- ^ Montemurri, Patricia. "'Not Without My Daughter' all grown up in Michigan". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
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