My Name Is Mahtob: The Story that Began the Global Phenomenon Not Without My Daughter Continues

Mahtob Mahmoody

Dec 2015 · HarperChristian + ORM

About this ebook

The daughter at the center of the international bestseller Not Without My Daughter completes her story: escaping from Iran, growing up in fear, battling deadly disease, and learning to forgive.

Two decades ago, millions of readers worldwide thrilled to the story told in the international bestseller Not Without My Daughter—subsequently made into a film starring Sally Field—that told of an American mother and her six-year-old child’s daring escape from an abusive and tyrannical Iranian husband and father. Now the daughter returns to tell the whole story, not only of that imprisonment and escape but of life after fleeing Tehran: living in fear of re-abduction, enduring recurring nightmares and panic attacks, attending school under a false name, battling life-threatening illness—all under the menacing shadow of her father.

This is the story of an extraordinary young woman’s triumph over life-crushing trauma to build a life of peace and forgiveness. Taking readers from Michigan to Iran and from Ankara, Turkey, to Paris, France, My Name Is Mahtob depicts the profound resilience of a wounded soul healed by faith in God’s goodness and in his care and love. And Mahmoody reveals the secret of how she liberated herself from a life of fear, learning to forgive the father who had shattered her life and discovering joy and peace that comes from doing so.

Ratings and reviews

After reading not without my daughter, I am really floored, astonished, that Mathob would find solace in -of all things- religion. The very thing that's at the root of all her trauma...be prepared, for a good chunk of this book is bible quotes, Lutheran school this, Jesus that...and it permeates throughout the whole book. Like all intense believers, she lets you know -rather unnecessarily- that after all her education, she believes that god literally created the universe and Jack Kevorkian deserved prison, not for not upholding the law, but for "only god is justified in taking life"...ok. I found it super condescending at times, with all the pop psychology and in your face religiosity, but is an honest and heartfelt account of her remarkable life and that alone saves this book.

I enjoyed this book. The story was told in a way that held my attention. I would recommend it to others.

educational, yet personable. Through the eyes of a child.

About the author

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Michigan State University, Mahtob Mahmoody has worked in the field of mental health and is an advocate for public awareness of health and welfare initiatives. She is represented by AEI Speakers Bureau and lives in Michigan.