jbsreading I love this movie because it's about a brave mother risking her life to save her daughter. Where it takes place and who the foes are is secondary to me. Just as "The Handmaid's Tale" shows the dangers of a fundamentalist Old Testament Christian society where women have no rights, "Not Without My Daughter" tells of a similar society that happened to actually exist in Iran when this real life story took place. Imagine leaving your comfortable rights-filled home and being thrust into a country where your gender has zero rights, and to boot, you don't know the language and are totally unfamiliar with the culture or language, or religion. Oh, and you and your daughter are prisoners. This is Betty's own, personal, terrifying story. She encountered people who were hostile and seemed scary, or who were at least afraid to communicate with or help her. She was in a small, foreign environment. Hopefully people are intelligent enough not to make assumptions about an entire country of people but we also shouldn't ask a survivor to alter her terrorizing experience because we find it offensive. It IS scary that women and girls had no rights in Iran and that were prisoners. Of course, Americans in this situation would experience this very, very differently than those girls born there into loving families or who visited at a kinder and gentler time in Iran's history. Let's honor this heroic woman and her daughter, their story, while understanding that someone else could have an entirely different story and perspective coming out of Iran or any other Muslim country.

Kate Finally watched it last week after reading an article referencing it. Sally Field and the rest of the cast were excellent as was the script and dialogue. The movie is fast paced and although it is long, I didn't once find myself looking at the time. The only part I couldn't work out was whether the teachers in the school were sympathetic to her or not - would love it if someone could tell me their thoughts on this! I found this story so engaging that I then searched for more information about Betty's story, interviews etc. The movie is quite violent (women being beaten) in parts so I would not recommend this being viewed anywhere that children could walk in This movie has really stood the test of time.

Hamed Mashayekhi I have never written anything for any movie because both my English and my knowledge about cinema are not good enough. However, last night after watching this movie I decided to write my idea about it. I am an atheist and I hate the Islamic Regime in Iran. I am also by no means a nationalist. But after watching this movie I was so angry that had to walk a few minutes to cool down. The Iranian society even today has lots of problems. In 1980s after the Islamic Revolution the situation was much worse. But the situation pictured in this movie is so exaggerated that you can't believe it is just a misunderstanding about Iran. This movie has certainly been made for a political purpose. Anybody who has been to Iran even for a few hours will agree with me. There are lots of things I can mention here that are not (and have never been) true about Iran and you can see them in this movie. For example in this movie all Iranian women are wearing chador (a kind of Islamic cover). There are lots of women in Iran without chador who use scarves to cover their hair and they don't even cover it completely as was shown in this movie. There are a few cases of asking women to cover their hair and it is never done as it is shown in this movie. They are often asked politely to cover their hair. The other point about chador is that it is not common for Iranian women to wear it at home and they definitely don't wear black chadors for praying at home. In this movie all women are wearing chador, even at home and even when they are praying. It was obviously tried to show everything about Iran dirty, ugly, primitive and savage. The houses and streets are dirty and destroyed, the women are ugly (which is actually the opposite!), men act like wild animals, etc. There are pictures of Khomeini and the logo of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards everywhere (even inside the house!). No woman wears make up. And I have no idea why there are soldiers and military cars in the streets! If you haven't been to Iran, please do not believe what you see in this movie. Although the Islamic regime is not what most of us want in Iran, it has never made our country as it is shown in this movie.

faerie_number3 This movie may not win in terms of geographical accuracy or cinematography. However, the woman depicted in the movie is based on the real Betty and she is the writer of the screenplay.I know many things about many different countries, which seems to be odd for an American. I have read many books about Islam, and ultimately I think that it is most often a religion associated with violence, especially against women. I understand that there are many modern, peaceful people who practice Islam, and I am of the opinion that they have adapted an ancient, oppressive creed to their modern progressive values in order to reclaim it for peace.To anyone who thinks the husband is irrational, or unrealistic, understand that this movie is based on ACTUAL events, not fiction. I know as a woman, that there is no way I could ever safely travel through Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and many other places regardless of it being 2010. I feel it is sick and sad that these women are covered because the men in those places have not learned to control themselves.I interact with many international students within my TESL program, and the only people who prefer to not speak with me or acknowledge my statements in a classroom have been Muslim men. Culture is one thing, and trying to kill Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a dutch parliament member originally from Somalia, for making a film about exactly which parts of the Qur'an oppress women is another. Sadly, Islamic extremists did manage to kill her director, Theo Van Gogh, while he was bicycling in Amsterdam (not an Islamic country). I am proud of France for standing up for equality and banning womens' head scarfs in Governmental buildings because they represent the inequality of men and women which goes against their republic. I just wish I could convince my public college to stop building prayer rooms and foot washing facilities for Muslim students using student fees. No religion should be getting state money for any educational facilities, and yet in Minnesota there is a charter school next to a mosque that is suing the state for not handing over funds because they violate state law regarding religion in schools (google Muslim school in MN gets state funding). They, of course, are not the only religion trying to get into schools. Many Christians would like to see their religion in schools again as well. I have been following stories of Islamic oppression of women for many years with my mother. While I understand that there are MANY, NON-VIOLENT, MODERN Muslim people, there are still many cases of abuse against women and children by Islamic men across the world. There have also been many cases of Islamic extremists destroying artistic works, literatures, and other cultural artifacts that are not of their culture. This is fundamentally wrong in my opinion, as it was for death metal groups to burn down 13th century Christian churches in Sweden, (google Swedish church fire). These types of art and structures hold value to ALL MANKIND not just the people that made them. This is human history being destroyed!I myself am of the opinion that MOST major organized religions oppress women, especially Catholicism, Lutheranism and various sects of Christianity in America. Buddhism didn't allow women to practice for a long time. I do believe that Islam may be the most oppressive religion to women overall.In light of more recent works like Persepolis, this movie is not unrealistic, despite being tacky and poorly filmed. In Persepolis, the parents are very liberal and modern. The writer of those graphic novels lives in France despite having very liberal parents, and that says everything.