Betty Mahmoody is an American author best known for her book, Not Without My Daughter, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. 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 kidnaping legislation which was adopted in her home state of Michigan. In 1984, she, her husband, Sayyed Bozorg "Moody" Mahmoody, and their daughter Mahtob traveled to Iran for what was supposed to be a two week visit. However, Mrs. Mahmoody further claims that her husband refused to allow his family to return to the United States and became domineering and abusive. 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. 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 escaped her husband and Iran, crossing into Turkey taking their daughter with her illegally under Iranian law and without the knowledge of her father; reaching the U.S. embassy, from where they were returned to the United States. Mrs. Mahmoody's ordeal is recounted in the 1991 film, Not Without My Daughter in which Sally Field played Betty Mahmoody.
Controversy and Response
Both the book and the movie were source of controversy, especially among Iranians, as many believed the story is not a true reflection of what really occurred. There has been a mention of TF1 interview with Betty Mahmoody, where she has accepted facts contradictory to things she had claimed in the book, such as her being lied to about the length of trip and that the story was altered to attract readers. 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.
Similar cases
The case with Jacqueline Pascarl, whose children were taken out of Australia illegally, is strikingly similar but in an opposite way, it was the father, who could not have the children according to Australian law and taking the children illegally according to the country of mother this time.
