Not without my daughter
I recently heard the most fascinating story.
When my wife had first started to date me she told her parents (who are the loveliest people in the world – and I adore them) that she was dating an “Iranian” who lived in “New York” and was a “Rock star”. With this one short description my wife gave her parents three mini heart attacks.
Rock Star = He is going to ruin her life
New York = He lives in the big bad dirty city
Iranian = Not without my daughter
The movie poster for Not without my daughter describes the movie in these words: In 1984 Betty Mahmoody’s husband took his wife and daughter to meet his family in Iran. He swore they would be safe. They would be happy. They would be free to leave. He lied.
To put it in perspective this was after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the hostage taking at the American Embassy in Tehran. Americans were weary, worried, and rightly a little paranoid.
Still to a whole generation of Americans the movie seems to have become the token description of Iran and Iranians, especially Iranian men. I have heard “Not without my daughter” mentioned so many times when someone has found that I was born in Iran.
This is where the story comes around. My father in law (who I have to say may be one of the smartest and most knowledgeable people I have ever met) and I were discussing the political situation in Iran over the weekend and he said, “You know what the people are doing in Iran, standing up and fighting for freedom, is really changing people’s opinion of them and separating them from the government and the politics. A lot of people still of Not without my daughter when they think of Iran”.
This is amazing. There is a generation of Iranian youth who have never been to America, who have most likely never met an American, who are standing up, using their mobile phones, twitter accounts, and facebook pages, to rally and form a movement for their own democracy but in so doing are changing the opinion of a generation of Americans who 30 years ago were burnt by another Iranian movement, which back then was also fighting for its own democracy.
Cover Artwork for Buddahead Iranian Democracy EP