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| Betty Mahmoody |
Born in Iran, Mahmoody had been educated in the USA and seemed to concur with the American belief in spousal equality. A subtle attraction must have evolved during these sessions. After her final session, Dr. Mahmoody turned Betty on her back and kissed her lips, expressing the love he had developed for her. As Betty reciprocated his feelings, the two soon began seeing each other. Having married shortly thereafter, they produced a daughter, Mahtob.
Though initially seeming contented in Alpena Michigan where they had met, in 1984, Mahmoody began urging Betty to bring their daughter Mahtob for a two-week visit to his family in Tehran. When Betty questioned his plan to return to America, she states he pledged on the Holy Koran to return when their visit was finished. A nephew, as a house guest, reinforced this vow by assuring her the family and overall cultural structure would never allow Mahmoody to dishonor his word, given such a deeply religious foundation.
Once in Iran, they were both aghast by the sounds of domestic beatings by husbands, evoking cries of pain from their wives. Then, when the Mahmoody’s themselves had a minor dispute, Dr. Mahmoody struck Betty, with force. Both spouses were shocked by this act; he pleaded with her from his soul to forgive him.
Startled but striving to accept this aberration as a cultural reflex, Betty was able to overlook it until his later violence showed it to be an ingrained part of his sense of the matrimonial state. Her initial tolerance allowed her to enjoy the rest of their visit, convinced it would only be for the agreed-upon two weeks.
Then, in the midst of her packing for their trip home, Mahmoody told Betty they would stay in Iran for the rest of their lives, their daughter inculcated with middle-eastern values of wifely subservience. Nothing on Betty’s part to alter the granite of his betrayal, calculated before they had left America, could urge him to change this decision.
Through the subsequent weeks and months, her defiance continued, freeing Mahmoody, in his own mind, to brutalize her in those ways which had at first seemed appalling to both of them. Whenever Betty and their daughter left the house, Mahmoody had them followed, then quizzed the toddler as to their doings and whereabouts. He showed an even deeper malevolence by separating mother and child for a week or more.
Eventually, he stated Betty was free to leave Iran if she chose, but their daughter, Mahtob, would stay in Iran under his sole custody. This crystallized Betty’s decision. Yes, she would flee from Iran, but she would not leave Mahtob to endure the miseries of Iranian womanhood.
After various attempts at negotiation, Betty was able to lull Mahmoody’s suspicions to the point where, despite their estrangement, he believed she would stay in Iran with Mahtob until a conference took place with a lawyer. The rest of Betty Mahmoody’s book, later made into a controversial film, chronicles the strategies needed to gain hard-won liberty from middle-eastern cultural suffocation of wives and daughters.
