haque@remus.rutgers.edu (Ahsan ul Haque) (01/22/91)
Note: This review of the recently released movie "Not Without My
Daughter" is being posted on behalf of a friend. However,
you may send questions/comments to me or on the net---thanks.
Peace to all my sisters and brothers in the world.
As a response to some questions on the net, I would like to tell you
that I did see the movie "Not Without My Daughter" However, I found it
offensive to Muslims, especially to Muslim women. Every story has at
least two sides to it. I'm not trying to say that this incident never
took place and I do sympathize with Betty Mahmoody. However, linking
this movie to Islam is totally absurd and intolerable.
In the movie, Betty's husband represents all Islamically oriented
Iranians. Iran, in turn, is equated with Islam, as if all of Iran's
wartime excesses had no other cause. For example, after a scene where
the husband wrestles his daughter away from the mother, they show a shot
of a crescent (A symbol of Islam) on a black screen, implying that Islam
legitimizes the husband's action. Also, the costume designer makes the
women in the movie look like prison inmates. Women's Islamic dress is
not neccessary dark and drab. It seems like they wear their chador
(a complete covering of the body except the face and hands) even to bed,
while this complete covering is required only in front of male strangers
(as defined in the Quran).
In addition, the producer of this movie fails to translate the
Persian dialogues to English. This is the lowest courtesy that should be
exercised when showing something in a foreign language. To the audience,
these shouts, hideous arguments and plain gibberish (shown throughout the
movie) sound repulsive and just plain ugly.
This movie portrays to the viewers that Muslim women are totally
oppressed and have no rights. If this were so, why would millions of women
still be practicing Islam? In fact, according to Islamic law, custody of
the children is granted in most cases to the mother with full child
support from the father. Even if the mother does not get the custody,
her mother and sister have priority over the father. In addition, in
Islam, a woman's right to her money, real estate or other properties are
fully acknowledged. This right undergoes no change whether she is married
or single. She retains her full rights to buy, sell, mortgage, or lease
out some or all of her property. It is nowhere suggested in Islamic law
that a woman is subservient to a man.
I am not too familiar with Iranian laws (maybe someone would like to
enlighten me about them), but I will deeply appreciate it if the viewers
of this movie would not directly link it with Islam.
I apologize if I have offended anyone.
Anything correct which I have said comes from Almighty God (Allah),
and anything wrong which I have said is from myself.
Thank you,
A Concerned Muslim Sister.ta00est@ncar.ucar.edu (elizabeth s tallant) (01/25/91)
Perhaps ;you need to read the chapter "Women" which gives Moslem men permission to beat their wives, marry captive slaves who are already married, etc.
mh52+@andrew.cmu.edu (Mohamed Adzlee Harun) (01/25/91)
Assalamualaikum... I have a question about the movie...Was Betty Mahmoody a Muslim in that film? I understand that a mother(if she's a Muslim) has as much right to custody of her children as the Muslim father has.., but if the mother is NOT a Muslim and the father is...does the same rule apply? -Shaheedah
forgach@noao.edu (Suzanne Forgach) (02/03/91)
>From article <1991Jan25.045152.5478@nntp-server.caltech.edu>, by mh52+@andrew.cmu.edu (Mohamed Adzlee Harun): > Assalamualaikum... > > I have a question about the movie...Was Betty Mahmoody a Muslim in that > film? I understand that a mother(if she's a Muslim) has as much right > to custody of her children as the Muslim father has.., but if the mother > is NOT a Muslim and the father is...does the same rule apply? > > -Shaheedah I don't know about in the movie, but I am nearly finished reading the book (which spurred my curiosity to look in on this newsgroup), and Betty Mahmoody faked her Muslim faith to regain her husband's good will and to get him to stop beating her and locking her up. She never gave up her Christianity, but prayed fervently in the Muslim format to be able to return to America. Also, besides Muslim law itself, she also had the Iranian constitution to deal with which specified that the father had custody, which upon his death reverted to his relatives, and not to the children's mother. Suzanne Forgach