58 pages • 1 hour read
Betty MahmoodyNot Without My Daughter
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1987A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: The 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Hostage Crisis, and the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War
The 1979 Iranian Revolution informs the political context and many of the events and relationships in Not Without My Daughter. The revolution was the result of a long quest for democratic governance in Iran. Until 1979, Iran was governed by the Pahlavi dynasty, headed by the shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Pahlavi maintained a close relationship with the United States and other prominent nations, turning away from the influence of the USSR. Anti-government protests started in October 1977, culminating in massive uprisings. Although many of the protesters were not ideologically aligned, others were informed by Islamic and Marxist-Leninist ideologies. A vast majority of the population demanded the shah’s removal, hoping for a democratic and prosperous society. However, the overthrow of monarchic power resulted in the establishment of a theocratic government led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a religious cleric who became Iran’s Supreme Leader. The Islamic Republic of Iran is led by an authoritarian Shia government that is widely criticized for its constant suppression of its citizens, its violations of civil and human rights, and its opposition to mainstream democratic values. The constitution approved by the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on Islamic law. In Not Without My Daughter, Betty Mahmoody reads Iran’s constitution in order to determine her rights as a woman and finds that she is completely subordinate to her husband and is unable to act in any legal capacity without him.
In October of 1979, Iran’s shah sought medical treatment in the US, sparking outrage in Iran. The Iranian revolutionaries requested the immediate return of the shah for execution. On November 4, 1979, a group of armed Islamist students attacked the US embassy in Tehran, taking 52 American diplomats hostage. The occupation aimed to pressure the return of the shah. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini saw the hostage-taking as a unifying action and a strategic move to pass the Islamic constitution and radicalize the revolutionary movement. As a result of the hostage crisis, the anti-American rhetoric intensified in Iran. The US imposed economic sanctions against Iran, including an arms and trade embargo. The hostage crisis concluded with the Algiers Accords in January 1981, when a hostage release settlement was negotiated.
The Iran-Iraq War, which lasted from 1980 to 1988, constitutes the background of Not Without My Daughter. The characters constantly face the threat of bombing and must run for shelter when the air raids start. The war started after Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, as a response to the Iranian revolutionary Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s call for a Shia revolution against the dominant Sunni government in Iraq. Moreover, Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq had expectations of replacing Iran as the leading power in the Persian Gulf. Despite the initial hopes of exploiting Iran’s post-revolutionary social and political confusion, Iraq’s advances stalled by December of 1980. The Iranian military counterattacked, and a five-year offensive into Iraq followed. The war ended in a stalemate, with both nations accepting a ceasefire brokered by the United Nations in 1988. The conflict caused immense human suffering, with at least half a million lives lost.
The tense relationship between the US and Iran became even more complicated during the Iran-Iraq War. After the initial arms embargo imposed by the US against Iran in 1979, senior officials in President Ronald Reagan’s administration facilitated arms sales to Iran between 1981 and 1986, violating the arms embargo. The official reason for the arms shipments was to free seven US hostages being held in Lebanon by Hezbollah, an Islamist group with Iranian ties linked to the Iranian Armed Forces. In the novel Not Without My Daughter, Moody and his family hint at the possibility that Iran’s weapons were provided by the US, which comes with the accusation that the US is only guided by financial interests, making its international image of morality a deceitful one.
Social Context: Iran’s Treatment of Women
The 1979 Revolution marked a significant setback for women’s rights in Iran, introducing restrictive measures and enforcing premodern conventions. Despite this development, social and economic programs initially benefited women, especially those from rural and poor backgrounds. Although women’s roles in Iran have changed over the years, allowing for increased civil freedom and mobility, Iran’s current social uprising under the name of Woman, Life, Freedom testifies to the continued oppressive policies of Iran’s government. Within the context of the 1979 Revolution, women formed a powerful faction. Their loss of rights, however, did not suppress their continued struggle for civil rights and freedom.
Iran’s morality police (appearing as pasdar in Not Without My Daughter) impose the strict Islamic dress code on the streets. In the novel, a group of female pasdar stop Betty several times and demand that she fix her head cover or socks in order to comply with the code. During the contemporary uprisings, the brutality of the morality police has been well documented. Iran’s regime, under which the morality police operate, actively suppresses protests and has attracted wide criticism from the world and from the Iranian diaspora. Iran’s current draft law, which intensifies the punishment for women who are not following the dress code, has been flagged by the United Nations. Describing the law as a form of gender apartheid, United Nations experts have argued that it enforces systemic discrimination against women in order to subdue them, thereby violating their fundamental rights.
Critical Context: The Captivity Narrative
It is important to note that Not Without My Daughter has been harshly criticized by scholars for advancing a biased and colonialist narrative and contributing to widespread anti-Iranian sentiment and hostility. The novel also aligns with the tradition of American captivity narratives. In the US, captivity narratives became popular in the 18th century, and their earliest iterations often portrayed heavily stereotyped storylines in which heroines from a Christian background were held captive by Indigenous American men. With the subsequent secularization of the genre, similar narratives have focused on moral and sensationalist elements rather than religious factors.
Captivity narratives are widely considered to be a form of lowbrow literature. However, as the success of Not Without My Daughter proves, they nonetheless have substantial ideological and social reach. The narratives usually interlace established tropes with lived experiences, and this problematic mixture of literary embellishments with objective facts presents critics and researchers with unique challenges, for such narratives often defy strict categorizations and critical study. Highly adaptable to cultural and political contexts, captivity narratives are powerful tools for the popularization of certain tropes, advocacy, and propaganda. In accordance with this pattern, Not Without My Daughter also showcases the adaptability of the captivity narrative. Informed by both secular values (such as freedom and women’s rights) and religious ones (such as devotion and the belief in divine intervention), the novel portrays Betty herself as the ultimate heroine of the captivity genre.
