Not Without My Daughter: The True Story of Betty Mahmoody: Alpena

Betty Mahmoody is best known for her book Not Without My Daughter, which chronicled the details of her marriage horror during 1984-1986; most people may be more familiar with the movie that was made about her experiences. The film came out in 1991 and starred Sally Field.

Betty was from the Michigan city of Alpena and ended up marrying an Iranian man named Moody. They had a child together, and sometime later in 1984, they all made a trip to Iran for a short visit with the man’s family. However, he had no intention of ever letting her return to the United States and ended up keeping her a prisoner in Tehran.

After two weeks, Betty expected to prepare for the trip back to the states; but she was sadly mistaken. He refused to let her leave, to which Betty was vocally against it.....and ended up getting a whack in the head from this guy.

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But that was nothing compared to what came next. Betty came down with severe dysentery and kept slipping in and out of consciousness. Fearing for her life in this hazy state, she begged her daughter to prevent Moody from giving her an injection, believing he may try to kill her.

Betty’s life became a living hell: her husband kept abusing her, her in-laws hated her, Moody separated her from her daughter for weeks at a time, she was a prisoner in a country that hated Americans in the first place and was threatened with death if she tried to escape.

It took a number of hellish years, but Betty finally did get away with the surprising help of many friendly Iranians who were sympathetic to her plight. The escape took her over snow-covered mountains into Turkey, 500 miles to safety. She and her daughter finally made it back to the United States in 1986 where she immediately filed for divorce.

Did Moody Mahmoody attempt to find Betty and her daughter? He did try. He came to the United States in 2001, but luckily for Betty, his name and likeness was put on a list of terrorists and he was refused entrance; he was sent back to Iran.

Currently, Betty is President and co-founder of One World that offers protection to children of bi-cultural marriages.