Betty Mahmoody

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Betty Mahmoody (born June 9, 1945 in Alma , Michigan ) is an American writer who is best known for her book and the film based on it, Not Without My Daughter and her commitment to children's rights .

Life

In August 1984, Betty Mahmoody traveled with her husband Sayed Bozorg "Moody" Mahmoody and their four-year-old daughter Mahtob for what she believed to be a two-week visit to Iran , her husband's home country. Shortly before the planned return trip, Moody refused his wife and child to return to the United States and is said not to have shrunk from curbing Betty's protests with violence and house arrest. According to her husband, however, the trip to Iran was linked to his intention as a doctor to help war wounded in the Iran-Iraqi war .

Because Betty Mahmoody was not allowed to leave Iran with her daughter, she took the first opportunity to escape after 18 months and left Iran with her child for Turkey , where they received great support from Kurds, Turks and Iranians. Both were picked up by the US embassy and flown back home.

Betty Mahmoody's book Not Without My Daughter , published in 1988 and co- authored with journalist William Hoffer , was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and has been translated into many languages. It has sold over 8 million times worldwide. Over 2 million copies were sold in Germany alone. In 1993, a second book, published For the love of a child ( out of love for my daughter ), which describes the time after their escape.

Because her husband is said to have threatened to kidnap her daughter from the USA, she now lives under a different name. She founded an organization to protect children whose parents come from different cultures , appeared on talk shows and was heard as a witness in several custody lawsuits. Because of her lobbying work, the International Parental Kidnapping Act was passed in 1993 . This US federal law makes it a criminal offense to leave the US with a child under the age of 16 without the consent of the other parent.

Her husband died in August 2009.

filming

The 1991 American film Not Without My Daughter , in which Sally Field played the role of Betty Mahmoody, is based on Mahmoody's experience .

review

The book and film were rated as racist , generalizing and insulting by exiled Iranians and many Muslims . According to critics, Betty Mahmoody's portrayal is too one-sided, contradictory and dramatically exaggerated. This is countered by the argument that Betty Mahmoody's book is not a scientific work on the social structures of Iran, but merely reproduces her personal experiences and experiences.

One of the books that deal critically with Mahmoody's book is Not Without the Veil of Prejudice by the Iranian political scientist, translator and women's rights activist Nasrin Bassiri, who lives in Berlin .

Betty Mahmoody writes in her book For Love for My Daughter - The Time After the Flight that any allegations of generalization are unjustified and that in her book Not Without My Daughter she never wanted to portray all Iranians as vicious, backward or misogynistic. She wrote: “Since the day I arrived in Tehran, I had suffered with the Iranians who had gone through so much during the Islamic Revolution and the war with Iraq . I had never had any doubt that only one person was responsible for my personal misery: my husband. I have never made general judgments about the Iranians, especially not after so many had become my friends and helped me escape. "

Publications

Web links

literature

  • Berndt Schulz : The Betty Mahmoody story “Not without my daughter”. The book - the film - the woman . Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1991, 255 pages, ISBN 3-404-11627-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nasrin Bassiri: Not without the veils of prejudice. Critical remarks by an Iranian women's rights activist on Betty Mahmoody's book. Bad König 1991.
  2. ↑ Edith Laudowicz (ed.): Fatima's daughters. Women in islam. PapyRossa, Cologne 1992 (= New Small Library. Volume 29), ISBN 3-89438-051-9 , p. 197.
personal data
SURNAME Mahmoody, Betty
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Alma , Michigan