Not Without My Daughter is another production of certain anti-Islam, anti-Iranian elements intended to poison the world public opinion and to serve their own political interests. The movie is not only a bad production, more importantly, it is a biased film full of falsehoods and fabrications.

While the producers of this film claim that it is based in a "true story," there are numerous reasons to believe otherwise. In several scenes, the movie depicts a totally inaccurate image of Islamic practice and Iranian culture. For example, in one scene, the leader of the supposedly Friday Prayer at the Tehran Univeristy is facing his followers while he and his followers should all be facing the same direction.

Also, in a number of scenes, the producers present Tehran and its streets as a ruined city, full of uncivilized people and herds of sheep and armed soldiers watching every move of the people. While those scenes may truly represent parts of Israel, where the movie was filmed, anyone who has ever been in Iran knows that not only Tehran but any other city in Iran does not even resemble those scenes.

The movie also includes numerous scenes showing Arabic culture, a culture which is different from that of Iranians. While it may not be important whether the producers of Not Without My Daughter represented Iranian culture and streets of Tehran accurately or not, it does bring to question the care they took in the accuracy of their story.

Not Without My Daughter portrays Muslim men as those who routinely abuse and mistreat their wives. Further, in numerous occasions, statements are made to the effect that women have little or no rights in Islam and that their husbands are allowed to severely restrict their activities.

On the contrary, while up until recently women in even some western countries lacked many basic rights such as the right to vote, Islam liberated women more than fourteen hundred years ago. A muslim man is supposed to treat his wife with the utmost respect and may not even expect her to do housework unless she wishes to do so.

A Muslim woman may even ask her husband for financial compensation to even take care of their own children. And, it cannot be further from the truth to even think that Islam tolerates a husband abusing or beating his wife. Doing so to one's wife or anyone else for that matter, has severe repercussions in Islam.

As to the Islamic dress code, while Islam, like some other world religions, does have certain restrictions on how a woman may appear in public. Nothing in Islamic law or tradition even implies that a woman may be executed for not doing so as the film conveys.

Islam emphasizes education and wants women to understand and accept this requirement which is intended for the good of society. Indeed, millions of muslim women around the world have accepted this fact and follow God's teaching. It should be noted that Islam has dress codes for men as well which should be followed.

There is no question that some Iranian or Muslim men may abuse their wives or restrict their activities. However, it is very wrong to imply that all Iranian or Muslim men do so as Not Without My Daughter does. There are American men who commit those and other improper acts, but it is just as bad to imply that all or even most Americans do so.

As far as the film story is concerned, there are evidences that indicate the film producers got carried away with their motives and instead of checking the facts as fairness would require, they stuck with Betty Mahmoody's one sided and biased story. For example, a number of European newspapers and television stations conducted independent investigations of the movie's story and found out that it is very inaccurate to say the least.

For instance, Dr. Mahmoody and his family lived in a very comfortable and upper class house, enjoying much of the same luxuries that many other physicians' families in the west enjoy. Dr. Mahmoody has provided original documents to the European media indicating that his wife left Iran on a regularly scheduled flight through the Tehran airport. The film shows that she escaped from Iran in a very dangerous manner and at a high risk.

We condemn any man, Iranian or otherwise, mistreating his wife or family and betraying their trust. In fact, if a woman is subjected to such conditions, she should take appropriate actions to not only end that situation but to bring the perpetrator of those acts to justice as well.

However, we equally condemn what the producers and distributors of Not Without My Daughter have done. Showing such productions is unfair, misleading, and creates an atmosphere of hatredism which is not healthy for any society. We feel showing Not Without My Daughter, a very misleading and one sided film, at Penn State by the Student Union Board (SUB) shows a serious insensitivity and miscalculation by the Board of what serving the student body at a university is.

Doing so is certainly not consistent with the goals of an educational institution and celebrating "diversity" at Penn State. We feel that SUB and other organizations should take steps to educate the University community by providing them with factual and more importantly even handed information.