The author and her husband came to Iran from the USA to meet her husband's
family. With them was their four-year-old daughter, Mahtob. Betty soon became
desperate to return to the States but her husband and his family had other
plans. This is the true story of one woman's struggle to keep her child and win
freedom for them both.'You are here for the rest of your life. Do you understand? You are not
leaving Iran. You are here until you die.' Betty Mahmoody and her husband, Dr
Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody ('Moody'), came to Iran from the USA to meet Moody's
family. With them was their four-year-old daughter, Mahtob. Appalled by the
squalor of their living conditions, horrified by what she saw of a country
where women are merely chattels and Westerners are despised, Betty soon became
desperate to return to the States. But Moody, and his often vicious family, had
other plans. Mother and daughter became prisoners of an alien culture, hostages
of an increasingly tyrannical and violent man. Betty began to try to arrange an
escape. Evading Moody's sinister spy network, she secretly met sympathisers
opposed to Khomeini's savage regime. But every scheme that was suggested to her
meant leaving Mahtob behind for ever...
