Not Without My Daughter Analysis

Not without my daughter, written by Betty Mahmoody with William Hoffer is a book based on real events about a woman who fights with bravery for her and her daughter’s freedom. It’s about the true struggle she faced in the patriarchal society of Iran, with courage and determination. The story revolves around a Michigan housewife who accompanied her Muslim husband with their daughter to Iran for two week trip. But to her horror and shock it becomes a permanent stay. She found herself and her four-year-old daughter, Mahtob, virtual prisoners of a man rededicated to his Shiite Moslem faith, in a land where women are near-slaves and Americans despised. It is about her struggle to escape a country that she can’t identify and connect with and to save …show more content…
The portrayal of Iran and Islam as male dominant country and religion further the stereotypes attached with Iran by the west i.e. primitive, barbaric, fundamentalist, dirty, despotic, orthodox and authoritative.
This memoir is highly influenced by the Islamic revolution’s ideologies and Iraq-Iran war. Betty Mahmoody being an American woman who was independent, self reliant, had liberty and freedom to not only her thoughts but also to her way of dressing, comes to a nation where being a women and American was despised and the latter was hated, Betty was trapped in Iran and could not return to the United States.
The memoir begins with the theme of motherhood which is emphasized through the title as well. Though she is reluctant about going to Iran and wishes to return to America even before landing in Iran, she is more worried about her daughter’s safety. Her daughter – Mahtob which means moonlight is an innocent child of four years, unknown and unbiased to the turmoil of life. Even though Mahtob has no idea of the obstacles and the hardships, she acts as moonlight in her mother’s dark life showing her the possibility of escape by giving her