Not Without My Daughter Quotes
"If only I could get off this plane right now."
"At that age a woman should have a handle on life."
"Just get through these two weeks, I told myself."
"I pondered my eyeglasses. I thought I was more attractive without them."
"We have to come down fast because of the mountains that surround the city."
"But I was obsessed with a notion that once Moody brought Mahtob and me to Iran, he would try to keep us there forever."
"His mind was a blend of brilliance and dark confusion."
"He would enjoy them for two weeks, and then we would return home."
"The entire craft shuddered under the strain."
"In Farsi, the official language of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the word means 'moonlight.' But to me, Mahtob is sunshine."
"Perspiring profusely, I thought: I must smell like the rest of them by now."
"I would never do that, my friends had assured me."
"I had come to meet Moody's family, and to allow them to see Mahtob."
"I knew that Mahtob dozed off with the same prayer I had in my pounding head."
"No longer did I delight in the single life. I hated the stigma of divorce."
"I loved Moody and I knew he loved me. In three years we had never had a single argument."
"There had been so many signals I had ignored."
"Here we were Mahtob and I hostages in a strange land."
"I felt the pleasure of real accomplishment; I had made him happy."
"The workaday world was losing its fascination. Only the weekends seemed important."
"I was proud that I had the ability to coordinate the party long distance."
"I was in the hall of Ameh Bozorg's house one evening, shortly after dark, when I heard the ominous roar of jet aircraft."
"Maag barg Amerika! Maag barg Amerika! Maag barg Amerika!"
"He could not shirk his family obligations, and now this began to work in my favor."
"His relatives wondered what had become of Mahtob and me."
"During the revolution he had led the successful occupation of the shah's palace, a feat that put his picture in Newsweek magazine."
"Chador is not Islamic. It is Persian. You do not have to wear chador in my house."
"But Moody insisted. He argued that Mahtob was going to have to learn to adjust, and school was a necessary first step."
"Instead of toilet paper, there was a hose that emitted ice water."
"I said, 'I know God is going to answer our prayers, but God doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want them answered.'"
"God is always with you. He will take care of you."
"He rose well before dawn to make sure everyone participated in prayer."
"There was no leeway, no room for independent thought or questioning or even inflection of voice."
"It was this school system that produced a Moody who could demand and expect total control over his family."
"She says, 'My wife does not look very happy.'"
"Mahtob tried to be brave, but as Moody and I turned to leave, we heard our daughter begin to wail from the pain of separation."
"You have to come every day and, while you are waiting for Mahtob, teach them English."
"I have been protective of Mahtob. I had been afraid to let her out of my sight, fearing devious plots that Moody and his family might concoct to take her away from me."
"Maybe there is a reason for you to go to that school."
"She prayed that God would find a way for me not to go to that school."
"Mahtob woke up fearful and crying the next morning."
"I am not leaving here until you look at this school."
"I was upset and sad that he was forcing Mahtob to go to the Iranian school."
"I know she had a microphone hidden under her clothes."
"I don't think he will accept, but I will ask."
"I am calling from the vice-consul's office at the embassy."
"Please do not get involved with these women."
"I thought I had seen the filthiest conditions that Iran could offer."
"Death is a more common and therefore less mysterious phenomenon."
"Sometimes they take the trucks to a boys school and take away the boys to be soldiers."
"What could I do but trust in Allah? And if the worst happened, was it not inevitable anyway?"
"If the law requires it, are you willing to bear arms on behalf of the United States?"
"You cannot do it this way. That is not the way we do it."
"You better not talk to anybody else about this."
"I am going to make all the decisions, I am going to straighten everything and everybody out."
"You're not Iranian here, you're supposed to be an American."
"I argued back at him, but his nagging persisted."
"It's only for a little while," he said, "until he gets a job."
"Lots of people would be happy with that job," I said, disgusted with his attitude.
"I will not accept a job in this country unless I can be president of the company."
"I concentrated on the positives. My life had blossomed in so many ways."
"We must call a truce," I suggested in desperation. "We simply can't talk politics with each other."
"Today in the United States, Islam is one of the most misunderstood terms in our daily life."
"We ask you to evaluate your mass media carefully."
"I tried again. No longer did I pray that Mahtob and I would find a way to get back to America together."
"He was driven by a madness that allowed him no peace."
"We were his family; we were the only people he had."
"The only thing that could ever straighten out this screwed-up country is an atomic bomb!"
"I loathed the man I slept with, but more, I feared him."
"You are the best woman in Iran. Most Iranian women are wasteful."
"Do not worry, your Lord has provided you with a running stream."
"If Ellen knew about these things, why had she not told me before?"
"Do not ever feel that you are bothering me – always call."
"Sometimes I think we'll never get out of here."
"You are going to go and leave me, aren't you?"
"I was just doing this for her to see her family."
"I don't want to go to Iran. I'm afraid that if I go there, he isn't going to let me come back."
"I would die in the mountains separating Iran and Pakistan, or I would get Mahtob safely back to America."
"We drove through Tabriz and on to another town. The driver took us through the streets in what seemed like an endless circle."
"How long would he wait before he realized I had tricked him?"
"I thought of Amahl. I had been unable to call him as he had requested."
"And what about Joe and John and my parents in faraway Michigan?"
"We drove on. Finally, sometime in the afternoon, we pulled up to an abandoned house along a country road."
"The evening wore on in frustrating silence and inactivity."
"With the chicken cooking and its wonderful aroma wafting in through the open door of the barn, she came back inside to prepare sabzi."
"After a time she left us alone briefly, and then returned with bread, cheese, and tea."
"We were outside of town in only a few minutes, speeding along twisting mountain roads coated with ice."
"At the top of the page was a golden-yellow sun. In the background were four rows of brown mountains."