Betty Mahmoody didn’t want to go, but she said felt she had no choice. This book thoroughly and without a doubt affirms that statement. “There are all of these different threads in our life,” she said, referencing
Betty says there are a few things she remembers differently, but “I’m not going to fill in the gaps.” Mahtob is good with that.The original book’s popularity took Betty Mahmoody around the world for book-signings, media appearances and lectures, and put her in a position to help other families dealing with international child custody cases.“That was an awesome blessing,” says Mahtob. Mahtob was to start a Montessori school in September, but, first, her father was determined to take a trip to Iran.It was only supposed to be a two-week vacation. Even before he arrived in Tehran, Mahtob's father, physician Sayyed Mahmoody, was obsessed with the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution, which turned a secular society into a fundamentalist Islamic nation. Once called “the most famous daughter in the world,” Mahtob Mahmoody is the subject of the book and film
Mahtob says she didn't write the book to process her feelings about her father.“It’s not traumatic for me anymore,” says Mahtob. Coupled with being diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disorder, when she was a teenager, her days were transformed into a constant life-or-death situation.
“They helped me to forgive my father and feel safe again.”Over the years, her mother would pull out photo albums of happy family times, so Mahtob would remember another side to her father, rather than the man who became obsessed with anti-American sentiments.“I learned a lot about myself writing,” says Mahtob. Because it was only supposed to be a two-week vacation.Mahtob Mahmoody, right, and her mother, Betty Mahmoody, escaped from Iran when Mahtob's father kept her and her mom in Iran against their will in the years after the Iranian revolution. Both women are Michigan residents.
“His motive was control. It took five years of Betty advocating in the Michigan Llegislature before the laws changed and Betty felt safe to file for divorce. “We celebrate the Persian New Year,” which starts today.But she never trusted him again. Initially, in order to divorce Sayyed Mahmoody, Betty would have been required to include her address on public court papers. Mahtob had inadvertently checked a wrong box on a MSU form, allowing her home phone number to be published in a student directory.
And while it was against the law for one parent to transport a child across state lines without the permission of another parent, says Betty, there were then no laws against taking a child overseas.Mahtob’s book was released in December in the U.S., although versions in German, French and other languages have been circulating for two years.“The response has been very positive. That could distract him because he knew Mahtob was afraid of going to the bathroom alone. It was always Anja’s dream for me to write my memories of the experience, but I didn’t want to. At age of 4, she and her mother are kidnapped in Iran for a year and a half and luckily they return to America. Now the daughter, Mahtob Mahmoody has written her book. "To this day, they have never disclosed the identities of who helped them escape from Iran.
Mahmoody never spoke to her father again, but still celebrates her Iranian heritage through long-held traditions and favored Persian recipes.
“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. They had rented a house in Southfield, and had undertaken steps to build a house in Birmingham. “She realized that without this, (it) would be hating part of me.”Her father died in 2009, without ever speaking or hearing from Mahtob.