Status Updates From My Name Is Mahtob: The Stor...

I am happy to say that I’ve found what I was looking for!! “If anyone reflects poorly in Iran and Islam, it is my dad for doing what he did, not my mom or me talking about it. Even so, It’s unfair to judge Iranians or Muslims by my dad’s behavior.” No racism! Just trauma

I’ve been kinda stuck in this one because I don’t typically read nonfiction nor autobiographies but it is a heartbreaking account and one that I think everyone should know and read

Good read

Boring but I’m over halfway so I don’t want to dnf

The book isn’t bad, it just feels like a condensed version of her mother’s two books…I’m reading it because existential literature was taking a toll on me and I needed a mental break, but I’m not entirely captivated yet.

194

Really loving this book.

The more I read, the angrier I am.Mahtob&her mother claim to be Christian (yet in her book, Betty says that Jesus and Allah are one and the same), she degrades her father over and over. Full of hate.
"I hate him" she says repeatedly in her book, "I told him part of our excursion by accident and I was afraid he'd kill mom." A child should NEVER have this burden of secrecy. I consider this girl warped because of Betty.

Children are sponges, what they hear what they are told they will believe and repeat. Right from the beginning her mom treated Mahtob like she was her friend, an ally and as an adult "you have to take care of me don't let your dad do this or that" installing fear in her daughter.
Just like her mother, the author kept herself away from the culture from her own family. "I had to then interact with them". Dispicable.

I've read Not Without My Daughter so many times that a lot of the details are committed to memory. I always wondered what happened after Betty and Mahtob returned home, how the story continues. And thanks to randomly finding this book, I'll find out.

And I call bullshit on Betty’s being willing to sacrifice her child’s physical and emotional wellbeing for an “enviable” lifestyle.
Sure, my child now drops to the ground and curls into the fetal position when airplanes fly over the house, fears the sight of soldiers, and screams and cries during friendly traffic stops, but my friends were darlings, the house was gorgeous and the shopping was just so fabulous!

And no, I’m not buying for even 1 10th of a millisecond that Betty made a conscious decision to take her four-year old daughter to *live* in a violent, anti-American battleground wherein females could be arrested and/or executed on sight for wearing nail polish, baring their hair, or failing to adequately cover their ankles.

He manipulated her and pulled other tricks to get her to agree to the two weeks.

When, after the promised two weeks had passed, he walked into that bedroom and declared that they weren’t leaving, he invalidated any possible counternarrative he could have spun to clear his name.

Note that nowhere in the email exchange does he deny keeping his family in Iran against their will.

What he *does* is list all of the creature comforts Betty supposedly enjoyed during her imprisonment in a war zone.

Ya gotta love how controlling abusers enumerate expensive gifts and other grand gestures as though they somehow justify or make up for what they’ve done.

Even if he never laid a finger on his wife and daughter, the fact that he spirited them away to his homeland under false pretenses is atrocious on its own.

Up to 49% was great. Now, not so much. If I wanted to read about someone's overly devout Christian beliefs, I would have just read the bible. Aside from that though, it is nice to see she had a normal (for her situation) teenage life as a high school student.

Heavy

126

An amazing story about a courageous, strong woman .

So far an accurate record of her mother's testimony of events from the child's point of view.

Strogly recommend this book. Completely moving.

When I found out Mahtob wrote her own book about her and her mom's story fleeing Iran from her dad, I wanted to read it! It's quite a story! And it's very interesting reading her journey.

So far I am loving it. Cannot put it down but I have to walk the dog and cook dinner

So far the story is really good but I'm listening to it on audible and I don't like the way the reader uses different voices for the characters. The reader is not the author.

Great book. I read her mother's book. I am happy for her that she is taking good care of herself. She seems like she is wise for such a young lady.

This book is a must read for all those who care about relationships as well as what the other person needs or wants--not what we think they do.

It would be nice to be able to play hooky and finish this today!

I'm hooked. It's difficult to stop and get dinner made or laundry done.

Reading this account, I don't think we can grasp what hatred is when you hear about the hatred that Iran has for US. To bombard their young students with this hatred and then the teachers become the eye of the government asking what do parents do and believe. Do they drink, what do they read.

I was familiar with this story because I watched the movie, Not Without my Daughter, many years ago. This book, being from the daughters perspective, promised interesting new insight. I enjoyed it at first but it seems now to be dragging on too long. I am listening to it as an audio book.

Denne her fortælling er så meget bedre end jeg havde forventet! Lige så intens som " ikke uden min datter", lige så nervepirrende beskrevet med flugten, og stadig er man ret så uforstående overfor, hvorfor noget som dette kan ske!