Not Without My Daughter is the title of a memoir by Betty, who wrote about her true story. In the story, she told about her personal life. She married her native Iranian husband in 1977, who worked as an anesthesiologist in the US. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Her husband tricked her into visiting Iran. At first, she didn’t want to go because she saw him obsessed with the Islamic revolution. After he promised her that they would be visiting only for a short time, they would be back in the US. After she, her little daughter, and her husband arrived in Iran. He took away her passport and started to abuse her when she intended to take her daughter back to the US. She didn’t know the local language. In addition, she was forced to follow Islamic laws, such as she couldn’t go out alone, she must cover her hair in public, etc. She started to witness her daughter’s school indoctrinating her little daughter with American hatred. Luckily, after one and a half years of ordeal in Iran. She was able to escape with her daughter via Turkey, where she asked the US embassy in Turkey to help her go back to the US.
Betty’s story is not different from the majority of women in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Before 1979, women in Iran didn’t have to cover their hair in public. They had the same freedom as many Western countries. After the Islamic regime took power in 1979. The evil regime started to pass many conservative Islamic laws that took away Iranian women’s rights. In the beginning, women in Iran rebelled and protested against conservative laws, but they were brutally put down. The Iranian women have continued to protest against many conservative laws since 1979. Just three years ago, a 22-year-old female student didn’t follow the mandatory hijab law. She was arrested, tortured, and died in custody. Her death galvanized all Iranians’ uprising against the evil regime. Sadly, the uprising was violently put down, over a thousand deaths and 19 thousand people in jails.
There have been many uprisings since 1979. Dozens of thousands of people died, and more than a million people were forced into exile or into prisons. Why have the majority of Iranians risen against the Islamic regime? Because the evil regime limited women’s rights, indoctrinated Iranian children to become terrorists. Iran is a rich country with natural resources. Why is Iran still poor today? The evil regime has used money from natural resources to support terrorist organizations around the world. Some estimated that Iran has spent about 50 billion dollars to support all terrorist organizations, excluding human resources. Because of that, Western countries have sanctioned Iran caused Iran’s economy to totally collapse.
Now is the 12th day of Iran’s uprising against the evil regime. Luckily, this time, many Western countries support the Iranians. My question for many young Westerners. They have supported Palestinians for many years. While Palestinians are about 6 million people, Iran is a country with 90 million people. Why don’t they deserve attention or support? Iranians don’t want to live under Islamic laws; they don’t want the evil regime indoctrinating their children to become suicide bombers, and they don’t want their natural resources to support terrorist organizations around the world. They want to live where human dignity is respected. Iran is the only country that has been ruled under an Islamic regime for 46 years, but its people have dreamed to live under secular Western civilization. Unlike many Muslim countries, they demand to live under Sharia law. There is nothing wrong to wear hijab in Muslim countries, but it is fundamentally wrong when a hijab is forced to be worn. Now is the 21st century, not 12nd century.