Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!agate!shelby!eos!data.nas.nasa.gov!mustang!nntp-server.caltech.edu!bes
From: forgach@noao.edu (Suzanne Forgach)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: A REVIEW OF THE MOVIE "NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER"
Message-ID: <1991Feb3.021605.18149@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 3 Feb 91 02:16:05 GMT
Sender: bes@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 21
Approved: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu

>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