Betty Mahmoody
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Betty Mahmoody (born June 9, 1945) is an American author best known for her Pulitzer-nominated, best-selling 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. She was instrumental in the development of international kidnapping legislation which was adopted in her home state of Michigan[citation needed].
Her book is an account of her experiences in 1984, when she and her husband, Sayyed Bozorg "Moody" Mahmoody, and daughter, Mahtob, traveled to Iran for what was supposed to be a two week visit. Betty claimed that her husband had no intention of returning to the US, also refusing to allow his family to travel back. She further claimed that he became domineering and abusive toward her and their daughter.
Although born in the United States, Iranian law claimed their daughter Mahtob as an Iranian citizen, who could not leave the country without her father's permission[citation needed]. Faced with the fact that she would only be allowed to leave if she left her daughter with her husband, she stayed in Iran for 18 months. Eventually, she and her daughter managed to escape her husband and Iran, crossing into Turkey and reaching the U.S. embassy. They were returned to the United States.
Mrs. Mahmoody's ordeal is recounted in her book "Not Without My Daughter".
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[edit] Controversy and response
Both the book and the movie were sources of controversy[citation needed], especially among Iranians, as many of them believed the story is not a true reflection of what really occurred[citation needed].
In 2002, Alexis Kouros, a Finnish writer born in Iran, directed a documentary called "Without My Daughter", reflecting her husband's point of view, in response to the 1991 movie.[1]
