By DIANE SPEER

News Lifestyles Editor

Though she spent three of the first years of her life in Alpena where her father was a doctor at Alpena General Hospital, Mahtob Mahmoody’s real life story began in 1984 at age 4. Her father, a native of Iran, insisted that she and her mother, Betty Mahmoody, travel with him to his homeland for a supposedly two-week family visit. In reality, he intended to make it a permanent move and never permit them to return to the United States.

Iran and Iraq were at war at the time. Her father still insisted that they go, and her mother acquiesced fearing he would kidnap Mahtob and whisk her away to a foreign country.

What followed were nearly two years of virtual house confinement in Tehran and physical abuse directed toward Mahtob’s mother. The situation became so unbearable and frightening that an escape plan was hatched.

The escape put mother and daughter in the hands of drug smugglers who secreted them out of the country through inhospitable terrain in Turkey. After six grueling days of flight, they ultimately made their way to the American Embassy in Turkey and back home to Michigan.

Betty Mahmoody, who still maintains friendships from her time in Alpena, wrote of their harrowing experiences in “Not Without My Daughter.” The book became a global phenomenon and a mainstream film starring Sally Field.

Now, 30 years later, Mahtob has written her own book that tells what happened from her perspective. The just released “My Name is Mahtob,” also details the story of her life after fleeing Tehran: living in fear of re-abduction, enduring recurring nightmares and panic attacks, attending school under a false name, battling life-threatening illness all under the menacing shadow of her father.

“My perspective was different,” Mahtob said. “I was very aware of what was happening, but I was young. Things were just so much simpler for me. I knew what my dad was doing was wrong, and I wanted to go home.”

She remembers her homecoming and how her terminally ill grandfather was there to greet her like always. Suffering from colon cancer, her grandfather’s doctors didn’t think there was any chance he would still be alive when Mahtob and her mother finally made it back, but he was.

“His thing with me was that he would always duck into the bathroom at the top of stairs and wait for me, then jump out and yell boo,” Mahtob said wistfully. “When we came home, he was so sick. He weighed 80-some pounds and wasn’t strong enough to get out of bed. But he had cousins carry him into the bathroom anyhow. His voice was just a little whisper, but he did it. We had a good homecoming.”

Mahtob said her father, as part of his constant cruelty, would vacillate between telling them they would never see her grandfather again and dangling the possibility in front of them.

“Everyone once in awhile my dad would allow communications between us, but only to accomplish his purposes,” she said. “Sometimes it was so tortuous knowing that my grandpa was sick and knowing we might not see him again. My dad would tell us what to say. He’d sometimes take pictures and send them back home, making it look like everything was fine. He did occasionally allow communication, but it was never free.”

As a child, Mahtob watched and followed along as her mother became a bestselling author and traveled the world, doing interviews with the media elite of the time, including Barbara Walters, Maria Shriver and Larry King. Together, they embarked on a mother-daughter journey to raise awareness for and fight against parental child abduction. Mahtob also took a front seat to the Hollywood filming of her family’s saga.

Once back in Michigan and living near family, the two remained fearful. Mahtob remembers harboring a great deal of anger toward her father, but she also remembers a kind teacher who helped her to gain perspective and embrace forgiveness of the past even though she never reconciled with her father.

“Dad died in 2009,” Mahtob said. “Up until then, I had been very cautious to keep where I lived secret. The first time he got a message to me directly I was 16. It was through a television interview.”

That caused her angst as well.

“Wouldn’t you think after 10 years, if you had a chance to pass on a message you would say, ‘I love you. I miss you.’ But what he said was, I am his daughter, and that he would never allow me to be anything but Muslim. Even in that he was trying to exhort control.”

Her father remained in Iran, where Mahtob said as the years went by he presented an entirely different picture to the world of what happened. He portrayed himself in the media as a lonely man who just wanted his family back.

Eventually, despite their efforts to avoid any contact with him, her father located them 15 years after the escape from Iran. Mahtob was a junior at Michigan State University, when he arranged for a documentary to be done by a producer in Finland.

“He had this producer making this documentary, and the producer was absolutely determined to film a reunion,” Mahtob said. “He arranged for another student at State to work as an intern, and basically his job was to stalk me and anyone that mom had written about in her book. It was a very scary time.”

Mahtob spent years dealing with the after effects of her experience in Iran and the fallout that came in the aftermath. She shares her struggles via her new book as well as how her Christian faith has enabled her to triumph.

“God is so good, and so much good has come from this seemingly horrible experience,” she said.

Now 36, Mahtob is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of MSU, has worked in the field of mental health and is an advocate for public awareness of health and welfare initiatives. She lives in Michigan.

“My Name is Mahtob,” published by Nelson Book, a registered trademark of HarperCollins, is available locally at Olivet Book and Gift in Alpena as well as bookstores across the country. The hardbound book sells for $24.99.