Iran and Transexuals

[Hiero]

I was watching a documentory on transexuals in Iran. What I found interesting was the reason why biological men who gender themselves as female choose to change biological sex. One person undergoing the surgery said that if they were in a Western country they would not have the surgery. This individual believed that the West had laws that protected trasngendered people and cross dresses and assumed the West was socially tolerant of crossdress and trasngendered people in women's spaces. The reason he wanted to change sex to a female was because in Iran he faced harrasment as man gendered as a woman and was unable to enter Woman's spaces. If he changes biological sex to a female the state will change the sex on the person's ID from male to female and being then legall being considered a female will be able to dress like a female and enter female space without harrasment. One person undergoing sugery stated that it was Iran's society that forced him to make this decision and "undo Gods work" as he stated.

It provides an interesting case for concepts of gender and sex. In Iran, 'society' and state bureaucracy have a huge impact on sex reassignment surgery. A woman from a state run radio interviewed the transgendered undergoing surgery and while she was disgusted that someone would reassign their biological sex through surgery she agreed that it would solve alot of harrasment issues. This is an interesting case for understanding binary logic, it is less problematic for Iranians to change sex so their biology configures with their gender appearance than to tanscend gender norms through appearance.

[Property Is Robbery]

It's sad that they assume those people are accepted here

[Tablo]

I'm surprised they think that in the west transgendered individuals are more socially accepted.

[Hiero]

I guess legally homosexuals and transexuals have it better here in the west. In Iran males legally can't dress like a female or have male to male relationships, so they are forced to change their sex. Once they change their sex and enter clear catergories as to who they are then they legally engage in activites deemed normal for a woman. Where as in the West it may be harder for male to female transexuals wanting surgery to find a doctor.

I would be interested to know the experiences of male to female post surgery individuals. I wonder if they face discrimination or if society cooperates with the legal view and accpepts them as females. That would be the interesting, where is here many in the public would always claim they are still males who have mutilated their bodies.

I will try to find the name of the documentary, I only was able to watch parts of it and was hopping someone on revleft could shed some light.

[Sasha]

Well having seen these docs before, the problem are not transsexuals, they are recognized by the Iranian state and culture and get free surgery. The problems are for feminine homosexuals. They are forced by the state too either have male to female surgery (while they are not transsexual!) or death. So yeah, that's an whole more shit than in the western world.