Her book, Not Without My Daughter, is an account of her experiences in 1984-86, when she left (Alpena, MI) to go to Iran with her husband and daughter for what she was promised would be a short visit and then was held there against her will. Betty left had left her two sons from a previous marriage in the United States.

According to the book, she and her husband, Bozorg Mahmoody,and daughter, Mahtob, traveled to Iran in August 1984 for what her husband said would to be a two-week visit with his family in Tehran. Once the two weeks were over, however, he refused to allow his wife and child to leave. Mahmoody became trapped in a culture hostile to Americans, a family hostile to her, and an abusive husband. According to the book, Mahmoody's husband separated her from her daughter for weeks on end. He also beat her and threatened to kill her if she tried to leave.

She eventually fled with her daughter. The book details her 500-mile escape to Turkey and the help she received from many Iranians.

Betty Mahmoody compiled stories of other parents whose foreign spouses estranged them from their children in the book For the Love of a Child.

Alexis Kouros collaborated with Mahmoody's ex-husband to create a documentary, Without My Daughter, to counter the claims in Betty's book.

On August 23, 2009, Bozorg Mahmoody died in Tehran, Iran, aged 70. The state news agency quoted his nephew, Majid Ghodsi, as reporting that he died in a hospital from kidney problems and other complications.