In 1991’s Not Without My Daughter, Sally Field plays Betty Mahmoody, a Michigan housewife who marriage to Dr. Sayyed “Moody” Mahmoody (Alfred Molina) is perfect until he convinces her to travel with him to his native Iran. Moody says that the trip will only be for two weeks and that it will give his family a chance to finally meet their five year-old daughter, Mahtob (Sheila Rosenthal). Once they arrives in Iran, Betty meets Moody’s family and is immediately made to feel unwelcome. The men glare at her and the women seem to be annoyed that she’s bringing unwanted attention to them. Betty struggles to fit in, covering her head and trying not to complain. But then Moody announces that he’s decided that he will not be returning to America and that Betty and Mahtob will be staying in Iran with him.
I’m not really a huge fan of saying that a show or a movie “could not be made today,” because I often feel that’s just code for saying that you’ve reached the age where people younger than you no longer care about your taste in music or have the patience to explain the latest slang to you. There’s no real shame in reaching that point. It happens to everyone eventually. (Even I find myself getting unreasonably worked up over people using “ate” as a way to praise something.) There’s a lot of movies that would not be made today because cultural changes. Sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes that’s a bad thing but it’s mostly just an inescapable fact of life. The thing to remember is that there is a difference between would and could.
Could Not Without My Daughter be made today? Of course, it could. It just wouldn’t be made by a major studio and it probably wouldn’t star an acclaimed actress like Sally Field. Today, Not Without My Daughter would probably be made by a small studio somewhere in Utah and it would probably star Taryn Manning. The major studios would be too worried about being accused of being Islamophobic to make a movie in which a seemingly charming man turns into a monster as soon as he returns home to the Middle East. One imagines that they would probably move the action to a Mennonite community.
And it must be said that Not Without My Daughter does not feature many sympathetic Iranians. There are a few who help Sally Field escape but they are presented as being the exception to the rule. Even more importantly, they’re portrayed as not being particularly religious. While Moody does start to change as soon as he and his wife land in Tehran, the film suggests that Moody’s main problem is that he’s desperate to please his male relatives. He seems to be desperate to show that he has not allowed himself to become westernized. For him, that means turning his wife into a virtual prisoner and declaring that she will not be allowed to see their daughter unless she submits to his demands and accepts his abuse.
Here’s the thing, though. Iran has one of the worst human rights records out there. Women’s rights are severely restricted in Iran. Women are legally required to cover their hair and wear modest clothing. Legally, husband do hold the power in the household. They can forbid their wives from leaving the country and, as shown in this movie, they are given sole custody of their children. The Morality Police are a real thing and women have been killed for not covering their hair. There’s a reason why so many brave Iranian women have risked their lives to protest the Iranian government. Being opposed to the War with Iran is not a justification for turning a blind eye to Iran’s human rights record. Yes, one can quite rightly complain that there aren’t many sympathetic Iranians to be found in Not Without My Daughter but let’s not pretend that there isn’t some truth to the scenes where Betty is warned that she has not properly covered her head.
In the end, Not Without My Daughter is a heavy-handed but crudely effective film. Sally Field is instantly sympathetic as Betty. Alfred Molina is frightening as Moody. There’s not a subtle moment to be found but I still cheered when Betty made her escape.
