Women

A two-week vacation in Tehran in 1984 stretches into an eighteen-month ordeal for Betty, an American from Michigan, who married an Iranian doctor.

From the start, Betty Mahmoody had been reluctant to visit Iran because its 1979 Islamic revolution had changed everything and because of her fear that "Moody," her Shia husband, might want to stay in his homeland. In that case, according to Islamic law, their daughter Mahtob would be required to stay with her father.

The vivid story, based on actual experiences, revolves around the desperate plans Betty makes to escape from Iran along with little Mahtob and bring her back to America.

"Moody" is an Iranian doctor living in America with his American wife Betty and their child Mahtob. Drawn by news of the 1979 revolution in Iran and determined to rejoin his family and friends after a twenty-year absence, Moody convinces his wife to take a short holiday there with him and Mahtob. Betty is reluctant because Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini is not a pleasant place, especially for an American woman.

Soon after their arrival in Tehran, her worst fears are realized: Moody declares that they will stay. Betty resists, wanting to return home, but not without little Mahtob, her daughter.

Based on an actual experience, the movie reveals some of the intrigue and danger that Betty and Mahtob face in their narrow escape from a husband/father-turned-captor and his Islamic homeland.

Deborah, a beautician from Holland, Michigan, leaves 21st century America in order to bring help and hope to women in Afghanistan by establishing a modern beauty school in Kabul. Her experiences with Roshanna, Shaz, Mina, and other Afghan sisters, as well as with her new husband, Samer Mohammad Abdul Khan, make this a lively, poignant book filled with details of real life for women who live in the Muslim world of war-torn, 21st century Afghanistan.