Editing Betty Mahmoody

{{Short description|Author and Public Speaker}}
{{BLP sources|date=July 2010}}
{{infobox person
| birth_name         = Betty Lover
| birth_date         = {{birth date and age|1945|6|9}}
| birth_place        = [[Alma, Michigan]], U.S.
| occupation         = Author, public speaker
| known              = Author of ''[[Not Without My Daughter (book)|Not Without My Daughter]]''
| spouse             = {{marriage|[[Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody]]|1977|1989|end=div.}}
| children           = [[Mahtob Mahmoody|Mahtob]], Joseph and John
}}
'''Betty Mahmoody''' (née '''Lover'''; born June 9, 1945) is an American author and [[orator|public speaker]] best known for her book, ''[[Not Without My Daughter (book)|Not Without My Daughter]]'', which was subsequently made into [[Not Without My Daughter (film)|a film of the same name]]. 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.

==''Not Without My Daughter''==
Her book, ''Not Without My Daughter'', is an account of her experiences in 1984–1986 when she left [[Alpena, Michigan]] to go to [[Iran]] with her husband and daughter for what she was promised would be a short visit. Once there, she and her daughter were held against their will. The book was made into [[Not Without My Daughter (film)|a 1991 film]] starring [[Sally Field]] as Betty.

According to the book, she and her husband, [[Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody|Sayyed Bozorg “Moody” Mahmoody]], and their daughter, [[Mahtob Mahmoody]], traveled to Iran in August 1984 for what her husband said would be a two-week visit with his family in [[Tehran]]. Once the two weeks were over, however, he refused to allow his wife and child to leave. When she protested, Moody struck Betty. It was the first time Mahtob had seen her father hit her mother. After Moody broke the news to Betty, she got extremely sick with [[dysentery]]. Mahtob sat at her side day after day, watching her fade in and out of consciousness. Betty asked Mahtob to make sure Moody, a medical doctor, didn’t give her an injection as she feared it may have been lethal. Mahtob sat there and made sure her mother was safe. Betty was trapped in a nation hostile to Americans, with in-laws who were hostile to her, and an abusive husband. According to the book, her husband separated her from her daughter for weeks on end. He also assaulted her and threatened to kill her if she tried to leave.<ref name=se081102/>

She eventually escaped with her daughter. The book details her {{convert|500|mile|km|abbr=on}} escape over the snowy [[Zagros Mountains]] into [[Turkey]], and the help she received from many Iranians. These claims, however, have not been verified by any resources. <ref>Mahmoody, Betty. ''Not Without My Daughter'' (1991), St. Martin's Paperbacks.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= Biography of Betty Mahmoody|url=http://www.aeispeakers.com/Mahmoody-Betty.htm |publisher= AEI Speakers Bureau |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100920085347/http://www.aeispeakers.com/Mahmoody-Betty.htm |archivedate= September 20, 2010 |url-status= dead }}</ref> After returning to the USA in 1986, she filed for divorce.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1991-01-12-9101110623-story.html|title=After the Escape: A Mom's Crusade}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/27/books/her-husbands-captive.html|title = Her Husband's Captive|newspaper = The New York Times|date = December 27, 1987|last1 = Golden|first1 = Marita}}</ref>

==Other books==
Mahmoody compiled stories of other parents whose foreign spouses estranged them from their children in the book ''For the Love of a Child'' (1992).{{cn|date=September 2022}}

==Personal life==
Mahmoody is a devout member of the [[Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod]] like her daughter Mahtob.<ref>{{cite news|last=Montemurri|first=Patricia|title=Girl in 'Not Without My Daughter' case writes book reflecting on case|date=April 15, 2016|newspaper=[[The Columbus Dispatch]]|url=http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2016/04/16/1-girl-in-not-without-my-daughter-case-writes-book-reflecting-on-case.html|access-date=December 4, 2019|archive-date=December 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204073048/https://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2016/04/16/1-girl-in-not-without-my-daughter-case-writes-book-reflecting-on-case.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1992 she was inducted into [[Omicron Delta Kappa]], the National Leadership Honor Society, by [[Ferris State University]] as an ''honoris causa'' initiate.

She has two sons from a previous marriage, Joseph and John, who are 13 and 9 years older than Mahtob, respectively.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mahmoody |first1=Mahtob |title=My Name is Mahtob |date=December 1, 2015 |publisher=Nelson Books |location=Nashville, Tennessee |isbn=978-0-7180-9172-9 |page=22 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Phyllis Chesler]], who was married to a Westernized Muslim man from [[Afghanistan]]
* [[Aurora Nilsson]], was also married to another Westernized Afghan Muslim man
* [[Deborah Rodriguez (writer)|Debbie Rodriguez]], co-founder of The Kabul Beauty School

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name=se081102>{{cite news|url=http://www2.starexponent.com/lifestyles/2008/nov/02/not_afraid_of_change-ar-334946/|title=Not afraid of change|first=Allison|last=Brophy Champion|publisher=Star Exponent|date=November 2, 2008|access-date=August 19, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20100903002349/http://www2.starexponent.com/lifestyles/2008/nov/02/not_afraid_of_change-ar-334946/|archive-date=September 3, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>
}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmoody, Betty}}
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Activists from Michigan]]
[[Category:American women writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Michigan]]
[[Category:People from Alma, Michigan]]
[[Category:Lutherans from Michigan]]
[[Category:American Lutherans]]
[[Category:21st-century American women]]