Iran

Iran and its Islamic society are entities we will encounter more and more in the coming years. "To understand Iran," the author states, "we need to understand Iranians." With this book he lifts the veil.

• What is the formal and informal system of government in the Islamic Republic of Iran?
• How do humility and pride characterize Shia Muslims in the land that once was Persia?
• Why does Iranian President Amadinejad obsess about the holocaust and nuclear power?
• How does Shia Islam differ from Sunni Islam?
• In what ways is Iran a progressive Muslim country?

"If we cannot understand the depth of feeling in the Muslim world toward Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Islam as a political force, then we will be doomed to failure in every encounter we have with that world."

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.