Mahtob Mahmoody
 Swedish News Interview with Mahtob and Betty Mahmoody
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Mahtob Mahmoody (born September 4, 1979) is an American author who wrote the autobiographical memoir My Name is Mahtob, which depicts her perspective of her family's story when she and her mother, Betty Mahmoody, were held captive by her father, Sayed Bozorg Mahmoody, in his country of birth, Iran, for a period of 18 months during the mid-1980s. Her mother wrote her version of their story in her 1987 biography Not Without My Daughter, which was adapted into a 1991 feature film of the same name in which Mahtob was portrayed by Sheila Rosenthal and her parents were portrayed by Sally Field and Alfred Molina.
Mahtob was born to parents Betty and Sayed Bozorg "Moody" Mahmoody in Houston, Texas on September 4, 1979. Her first name means "Moonlight" in Persian. It was her father who named her that after he was inspired by a full moon that he saw. Mahtob has two half-brothers, Joe and Jim, who are Betty's sons from her first marriage. Mahtob and her parents lived in Texas and then in Michigan. She grew up in Alpena, Michigan.
On August 4, 1984, Mahtob and her parents arrived in Tehran to meet with Moody's relatives. Their stay was originally meant to have lasted two weeks, but Mahtob and Betty were held captive there by Moody for eighteen months. According to Mahtob, Betty suspected that Moody would keep them in Iran when he suggested that they visit, but she was afraid that if she said no to the trip he would kidnap their daughter. Mahtob stated in an interview with NPR:
So it was the night before we were to leave to return to America. Mom was packing. And there had been talk about our passports and our papers weren't in order and, you know, there were issues. But everything was going to work out. It was going to be all right. And then the night before we were to leave, we were in the bedroom. Mom was packing. And my dad came in and said that's it. We weren't leaving. We were in Iran until we died. And we were in his country. We had to abide by his rules. And from then on, he was a completely different person. To me, that's when my daddy died. You know, he was, from that moment on, completely changed.
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