LIFE IN IRAN“NOT WITHHOUT MY

DAUGHTER”

By: Monica Damron

NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER

Written by Betty Mahmoody and William Hoffer

True story of a mother and daughters experience

and escape from Iran

Has been made into a motion picture

Chose to read this book due to a recent cesarean

section and could not travel

IRAN

SUBJECT TO MALE DOMINANCE

Women were to remain at home and care for the

children

Men worked and provided the income

Women could only do as the husband had

instructed

Women were submissive

BETTY’S EXPERIENCE

Betty agreed to go on vacation to Iran for two weeks, her

husband had promised on the Koran, that they would return

afterwards

They left on in August 1984

She soon learned that she nor, their daughter, Mahtob would be

returning to the United States

She began to live a submissive life as an Iranian woman

She wore the rusari (to cover her hair) and the chador (to cover

her body), it’s much like a loose fitting trench coat

KORAN

Islamic Bible

THE EMBASSY

Could not help her unless she was willing to leave

her child

Could keep in contact with her family for her

Suggested that she try not to escape due to women

being raped and killed

Checked on her to make sure she was okay

THE ESCAPE

Moody had been called away for an emergency

Betty and Mahtob began their journey to a man that had

promised to help

The stayed in apartment until they began their decent at night

They were driven in cars, rode mules, walked and rode buses

Aided by numerous individuals who gave them clothing to

match theirs and fed them

Arrived home on February 7, 1986

THEIR ESCAPE ROUTE

500

MILES

TODAY: BETTY MAHMOODY

Has written another book called “For the Love of a Child”; about other stories from parents whose foreign parents estranged them from their children.

TODAY: MAHTOB MAHMOODY

Mahtob never again saw her father;She is now 31 years old;She is a public speaker at domestic assault vigils

TODAY: MOODY

Sayyad Bozorg Mahmoody “Moody” died in Iran on August 23, 2009 of Kidney Failure;He wrote a book in 2002 about how Hollywood had made him out to be a mad man and a wife beater; that he never did those cruel things; and his book has his side of the story

MY OPINION

I am glad that I am a United States citizen

I am not subject to male dominance

I can wear what I want to wear

I have rights

We don’t have missile attacks

We have clean food and water

I look at immigrants with understanding; for I too would want to

escape the trials they face on a daily basis

I would highly recommend that everyone read this book