But even after returning home to the United States, her battles were far from over. It took five years of Betty advocating in the Michigan Llegislature before the laws changed and Betty felt safe to file for divorce. “She realized that without this, (it) would be hating part of me.”Her father died in 2009, without ever speaking or hearing from Mahtob. They hijack their religion and reflect so poorly on their beliefs, their countries, their people.”“It was my dad’s behavior. “She’s always thinking what can she do for somebody else, and frustrated that she can’t do more.”That ranges, says Mahtob, from her mother making dinners for friends and working with governments to get children back who were kidnapped. There’s no sugarcoating it. Dnes už dospělá Mahtob Mahmoodyová, dcera autorky bestselleru Bez dcerky neodejdu (který ona sama nikdy nečetla), s odstupem více než čtvrt století vzpomíná, jak drama své rodiny prožívala coby malé dítě a jak se s tragickou událostí vyrovnává dodnes. There were times, says Mahtob, when her dad would rain punches on her mother.“I felt this sense of responsibility and that I needed to be a protector, and I did everything I could to get in between them and protect my mom from my dad,” she recalls. And she learned to stick her fingers down her throat to provoke retching, another trick to distract her dad from his rage against her mother.During the frightening escape, arranged secretly through a man they met in a Tehran market, she remembers periods of intense hunger. Mahtob and her mom's escape from Iran was chronicled in the book "Not Without My Daughter" which also was a movie with Sally Field.A Persian breakfast is laid out for a guest by Mahtob Mahmoody at her Michigan home.The two books: "Not Without My Daughter" by Betty Mahmoody, which was made into a 1991 movie with Sally Field. If I write something, I genuinely experienced it and remembered it.”Her mother, she said, is the portrait of a selfless servant to others, who refrained from bad-mouthing her ex-husband.“I can’t remember a single day when her focus hasn’t been service,” says Mahtob of her mother.
This man, in trying to discredit Betty's story, only succeeds in making her story more plausible than it already is.
At age of 4, she and her mother are kidnapped in Iran for a year and a half and luckily they return to America. Their story is the book "Not Without My Daughter" by Betty Mahmoody. Mahtob Mahmoody: One of Mom’s editors in Germany, Anja, became like a grandma to me. “It’s just I’m not holding this against (him) anymore. Initially, in order to divorce Sayyed Mahmoody, Betty would have been required to include her address on public court papers. It’s terrible. “Now, it’s just a matter of facts. “It’s very humbling that after all these years, people still remember our story and care.”Mahtob’s book editor, whom Mahtob considered an honorary grandmother, told her never to read her mother’s book because the day would come when Mahtob wrote her own. Mahtob of Michigan has written a book "My name is Mahtob," which gives her memories of the escape from Iran and how she grew to forgive her father. It wasn’t out of concern for me.”The most worrisome event came when Mahtob was at MSU, studying psychology. That could distract him because he knew Mahtob was afraid of going to the bathroom alone. Both women are Michigan residents. “There are all of these different threads in our life,” she said, referencing Once called “the most famous daughter in the world,” Mahtob Mahmoody is the subject of the book and film
And it’s about how she cherishes and honors her Iranian heritage, even as she is unflinching in recounting violent memories from her ordeal in Iran.“My Name is Mahtob” features the angelic face of a 5-year-old on the cover, the hint of a violet knitted sweater cowl visible. Driven to the border by a series of smugglers, they were led on foot by another man across the mountains to Turkey, and finally the U.S. Embassy.For years afterward, Mahtob had paralyzing nightmares.