Not Without My Daughter
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I can completely understand the kind of things you and your family would have gone through because of this particular book. Yes, the book is exceedingly racist. Although Betty does admit at times that not all Iranians are bad while referring to Hamid or Fereshteh, etc, but she seems to forget that at times... Her narrative drips with hatred for the country, its laws, its customs, culture as well as its people. I agree that there's nothing like home, but she should've given some thought to the way the country was being portrayed in her book.Nevertheless, nobody can deny the kind of hardships and near-death experiences the woman has undergone in that country. They are real-life accounts and cannot be neglected!
I think one has to read this book with the time it was written in mind. It is an account of what Betty went through and I cannot even begin to put myself in her shoes as far as her feelings go. It would be a horrific experience to go through, so I can understand where she's coming from. I can certainly see how her story would cause controversy and unfortunately paint the people of Iran in a bad light, but it is also up to the reader to read this as someone's personal experience and feelings rather than to take this as a portrait of a country and its people as a whole.
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Not only is it inherently racist, but it also enabled more racism to flourish in the world towards Iranians and I remember people asking me if that is what happened to me and my Swedish mom after marrying my Iranian dad.
Horrible.
As a fictive story - fine.
But this was not how it was told and I remember how Betty Mahmoody (who ironically kept her last name!) came on TV and propagated her book and tried furiously to convince people that this was not an exceptional event, but something that affected a whole nation.
It was really hard for me to even finish the book, specially after people were giving my mom a hard time about how she could have married a "Terrorist".