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Not Without My Daughter Iranian father dies
Iranian Bozorg Mahmoody, whose American ex-wife portrayed him as abusive in a controversial best-seller after escaping Iran with their daughter, died Saturday, official IRNA news agency reported.
Mahmoody, a US-educated doctor, "died in a Tehran hospital this morning because of kidney problems and other complications," his nephew Majid Ghodsi told IRNA. He was 70.
His ex-wife Betty Mahmoody portrayed him as abusive and domineering in the controversial best-seller "Not Without My Daughter" which she penned after fleeing Iran with the couple's daughter Mahtob in 1984.
"He thought of his daughter till the end and passed away without seeing Mahtob," Ghodsi told IRNA.
The book and its 1991 movie adaptation, starring Sally Field as Betty and Alfred Molina as Mahmoody, was met with angry reaction from Iranians offended by what they considered a "biased" depiction of their culture.
Betty Mahmoody claimed in her book that her husband brought the family to Iran on a short visit but later forced them to stay and prevented her from leaving for the United States with their daughter.
Under Iran's sharia-based law, the father is considered the main guardian of the child and married Iranian women need their husband's consent to apply for a passport.
Iran and the United States cut diplomatic ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution and the seizure of US embassy in Tehran.
The father in the bestseller book 'Not Without My Daughter' by Betty Mahmoody died in Tehran at the age of 70 after a kidney problem, one of his relatives told official news agency IRNA Saturday.
Bozorg Mahmoody was the main character in his ex-wife's book which exposed Iranian husbands' privileges in child custody cases due to the Islamic laws.
The book dealt with the Mahmoody family, including the little daughter Mahtab, which returned from the US to Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution, in line with the husband's religious sentiments and close political ideology with the post-monarchy clergy system.
After Betty Mahmoody realized that neither she nor her daughter could bear the living conditions in Iran, especially the sudden change of her husband from a Western-style physician to a dogmatic Muslim, she decided to return to the US with her daughter.
The husband however prohibited her from taking their little daughter to the US by using the Islamic laws which grant the father child custody.
The desperate American woman however paid smugglers to take her out of the country and after an adventurous trip, mother and child crossed the border to Turkey.
Both the book and the 1991 film - directed by Brian Gilbert, starring Sally Field and Alfred Molina - made Iranians quite upset for having tarnished the image of Iranians worldwide.
Observers say that although the book by Betty Mahmoody, now 64, did not represent all Iranian men married to foreign nationals and exaggerated several aspects, child custody laws in Iran still favour men.
Mahmoody, a US-educated doctor, "died in a Tehran hospital this morning because of kidney problems and other complications," his nephew Majid Ghodsi told IRNA. He was 70.
His ex-wife Betty Mahmoody portrayed him as abusive and domineering in the controversial best-seller "Not Without My Daughter" which she penned after fleeing Iran with the couple's daughter Mahtob in 1984.
"He thought of his daughter till the end and passed away without seeing Mahtob," Ghodsi told IRNA.
The book and its 1991 movie adaptation, starring Sally Field as Betty and Alfred Molina as Mahmoody, was met with angry reaction from Iranians offended by what they considered a "biased" depiction of their culture.
Betty Mahmoody claimed in her book that her husband brought the family to Iran on a short visit but later forced them to stay and prevented her from leaving for the United States with their daughter.
Under Iran's sharia-based law, the father is considered the main guardian of the child and married Iranian women need their husband's consent to apply for a passport.
Iran and the United States cut diplomatic ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution and the seizure of US embassy in Tehran.
The father in the bestseller book 'Not Without My Daughter' by Betty Mahmoody died in Tehran at the age of 70 after a kidney problem, one of his relatives told official news agency IRNA Saturday.
Bozorg Mahmoody was the main character in his ex-wife's book which exposed Iranian husbands' privileges in child custody cases due to the Islamic laws.
The book dealt with the Mahmoody family, including the little daughter Mahtab, which returned from the US to Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution, in line with the husband's religious sentiments and close political ideology with the post-monarchy clergy system.
After Betty Mahmoody realized that neither she nor her daughter could bear the living conditions in Iran, especially the sudden change of her husband from a Western-style physician to a dogmatic Muslim, she decided to return to the US with her daughter.
The husband however prohibited her from taking their little daughter to the US by using the Islamic laws which grant the father child custody.
The desperate American woman however paid smugglers to take her out of the country and after an adventurous trip, mother and child crossed the border to Turkey.
Both the book and the 1991 film - directed by Brian Gilbert, starring Sally Field and Alfred Molina - made Iranians quite upset for having tarnished the image of Iranians worldwide.
Observers say that although the book by Betty Mahmoody, now 64, did not represent all Iranian men married to foreign nationals and exaggerated several aspects, child custody laws in Iran still favour men.