Not without my daughter
Summary
The movie “Not without My Daughter” is about the true story of Betty Mahmoody. She is an American woman, married to an Iranian man in the States; they also have a daughter named Mahtob, around the age of four at the beginning of the story. The husband – whose real name we never know, he is just called ‘Moody’ – decides to take his family to Iran, but he lies about his real motives to his wife, telling her it will be just a temporary visit to his relatives, and that they will be safe. However, upon returning to his home country, he finds a different Iran than what he left. Religion now plays a major role in people’s lives, to the point that women can be arrested if they are not dressed in the proper, decent way. At first he finds it strange, but he soon begins to see it as a way of expressing his pride of being an Iranian and a Muslim. So he goes back to the rules of his old life, and treats his wife as Iranian married women are treated. Thus Betty finds herself in a situation she has no control over. As an Iranian wife, she can not go anywhere on her own, she is always watched by the relatives, and she should always do as her husband says. She wants to fight against this: her only aim is to get back to the US together with her daughter. After her first unsuccessful attempts to escape and being beaten and closed up by Moody, Betty tries to behave as she is expected to, afraid that she will lose her daughter if she does not. Mahtob starts school in Iran, and Betty gains the trust of her husband’s family by her behavior, and this enables her to escape with her daughter in the end. When she was rebellious and fighting, she was never allowed to go anywhere alone and taking Mahtob. She finds some people who are willing to help her, such as a shopkeeper who allows her to make telephone calls, and another man, an aristocrat, who finally arranges the flight for them. Finally, after a long journey where they can only count on other people’s good will to take them across the border, they arrive to Turkey. “We are home, baby, we are home” – these are Betty’s words to her daughter when she sees the American flag over the embassy in Ankara. Analysis

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