LANE: It’s gonna be just like that Sally Field movie when her husband took them to Iran and wouldn’t let them come back, except that I won’t have to keep my head covered.
RORY: Okay, calm down.
Lane is referring to the 1991 drama film Not Without My Daughter, directed by Brian Gilbert, and based on the book of the same name by Betty Mahmoody. It stars Sally Field as an American woman whose Iranian husband took she and their young daughter to Iran for a short holiday, but refused to let them return. The movie was a box office bomb and poorly received, strongly criticised for its stereotyped portrayal of Iranian Muslims and their culture.
There are a number of hints and references to marriage going wrong in this episode, and this is one of them.
