Edward Said argues in Orientalism that the American media and literature represents the Arab male as a "degenerate." This charicature most assuredly applies to the film Not Without My Daughter. Said says that the pop culture Arab in the United States is "associated either with lechery or bloodthirsty dishonesty. He appears as an oversexed degenerate, capable, it is true, of cleverly devious intrigues, but essentially sadistic, treacherous, low" (286). He is seen as a "colorful scoundrel," maliciously violent, and is represented as having "mass rage and misery, or irrational (hence hopelessly eccentric) gestures" (287). Said concludes that the function of this discourse is "a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient" (3).The Occidents stereotypical portrait of the Muslim Arab is self evident in Not Without My Daughter. The degeneracy of the male Muslim is seen in his relationship with women, the culture he has created around himself, and his role in his family and society in general. Dr. Mahmoody is the man who is chosen (by the Occident) to be the representative of his society in this film. He is a deceiver, a trickster, a religious extremist, a sexist, a wife abuser, and a kidnapper. He is one who yearns for a woman of the West and captures her, keeping her a hostage to his very whim. The "lechery and blood thirsty dishonesty" of the Arab is portrayed through the actions of Dr. Mahmoody who seems like a good guy while in America. After several years of marriage Mahmoody convinces his wife to take their daughter Mahtab and come with his to Iran for a visit. He swears on the Holy Koran that no harm will come to her and their child and that they will only be in Iran for two weeks. This evidently becomes a "cleverly devious intrigue" because Mahmoody is portrayed as capturing his wife and bringing her to a place where she is incapable of resisting his will. His dishonesty is directly associated...
