Not Without My Daughter

“Try as I might, I could not bury the dark fear that had haunted me ever since Moody’s nephew Mammal Ghodsi had proposed this trip. A two-week vacation anywhere would be endurable if you could look forward to returning to comfortable normalcy. But I was obsessed with a notion that my friends assured me was irrational—that once Moody brought Mahtob and me to Iran, he would try to keep us there forever.”

In this quote, the narrator uses foreshadowing to intensify her sense of impending captivity in Iran. Betty’s choice of language expresses the ongoing distress that she has begun to experience well before her actual confinement in Iran. The contrast between the leisurely vacation and Betty’s internal fears conveys the presence of hidden tensions that will play out throughout the novel.

“When Mammal, fourth son of Baba Hajji and Ameh Bozorg, had proposed this vacation during his visit with us in Michigan, he had said, ‘When you go out on the street you will have to wear long sleeves and a scarf, and dark socks.’ But he had said nothing about a long, oppressive coat in the midst of hellish summer heat.”

In this passage, the narrator points to the oppressive nature of Iranian dress codes for women. As with many details related to Betty’s experiences in Iran, she realizes that Moody and his family have not told her the entire truth prior to the family’s arrival in Iran. The imposed dress code also symbolizes Betty’s feeling of suffocation under Iran’s cultural restrictions, which she emphasizes throughout the novel.

“With Mahtob watching, unable to comprehend the meaning of this dark change in her father's demeanor, Moody growled, ‘I do not have to let you go home. You have to do whatever I say, and you are staying here.’ He pushed my shoulders, slamming me onto the bed. His screams took on a tone of insolence, almost laughter, as though he were the gloating victor in an extended, undeclared war. ‘You are here for the rest of your life. Do you understand? You are not leaving Iran. You are here until you die.’”

For the first time in the novel, Moody’s demeanor becomes openly menacing. His use of physical force, such as when he slams Betty onto the bed, foreshadows the repeated physical abuse that the protagonist and her daughter will suffer before their escape from Iran. This scene, with its explicit declaration of confinement in Iran, serves as an inciting incident in the narrative’s rising action.