Sayyed Bozorg "Moody" Mahmoody[1] (Persian: سيد بزرگ محمودى; c. 1939 – August 23, 2009) was an Iranian professor, engineer, and anesthesiologist, best-known for taking his American ex-wife Betty and their daughter Mahtob to his native country and keeping them hostage there for a period of eighteen months during the mid-1980s.
[7][9] Moody claimed Betty proposed to him, converted to Islam and took a lively interest in Persian culture.
[1] With assistance from one of his nephews,[10] Moody was able to convince his wife that their daughter deserved a visit "on holiday" for two weeks in Iran.
[11] Betty once quoted her husband in her 1987 book, Not Without My Daughter, telling her, "If you try to leave this house again, I will kill you!
After he was eventually placed on a terrorist list, he was never allowed back to the U.S."[13] A 2002 documentary was made by Alexis Kouros and Kari Tervo titled Without My Daughter.
[9][14] Mahmoody also authored a book called Lost Without My Daughter (2013) in which he counterattacks Betty's claims against him.
[15] Moody was portrayed by English-American actor Alfred Molina in the 1991 film, Not Without My Daughter, adapted from Betty's book of the same name.
As you can see, I am short, bald on top, and I wear glasses: no resemblance at all, which tells a great deal about how realistic the whole movie is.