I never thought this could be true, but I googled it and after reading some super-odd articles, i found out that yes, apparently, sex change operations are permitted in Iran and even subsidized by the government.
This is shockingly liberal for a regime nowadays seen as repressive of women's and gay rights. It's incredible, in fact, to know that the government of Iran pays part of the expenses required for sex-change operations for the Iranian transgender community. In most western societies, the government doesn't pay for gender-changing surgeries.
In the 1960s , Khomeini, who overthrew the Shah, took a stance on Iran's transgender community and said that
"if somebody wants to undergo a sex change because he feels trapped inside someone else's body, he has the right to get rid of this body and transform into the other sex, and he is also entitled to new identification documents, in order to put an end to his plight."
Apparently, changing genders does not go against Islam's norms. The sex change is also justified in cases of healthy gay men and women who, in an effort to escape the persecution they face as gays and lesbians in Iran, opt for a change of gender. Going through the operation means relative freedom to have intimate relations with other men or women, within the limits of the rules on public life in Iran.
The other side of the paradox is that if someone is proven to have had homosexual relations (I don't like the word "homosexual", but here, I am forced to use it) and there are three witnesses who can attest to the fact of seeing the person vis-a-vis engaged in gay sex, that is, while the person is having sex, the statements are taken as evidence in a government court and used against them to ultimately result in sentences that start with 100 lashes on the back and, in extreme cases, a public hanging. This process comes from an old, archaic interpretation of Sharia law, the Islamic code and is used for various matters, including punishing acts of extramarital relations, robbery, etc.
Now,
CBC Television aired a documentary on February 18th on gay rights in Iran titled
Out of Iran: The Persecution of Homosexuals in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which some
You Tube fan uploaded immediately after the documentary was shown on TV. The documentary, filmed and produced by Farid Heerinejad and narrated by the CBC TV's
Sunday Night host, Evan Solomon, shows some extraordinary men who stand up for their rights in a country where standing up for your rights could pose a life danger, especially if you are a gay man or woman. We see and hear Iranian activists and founding members of
IRQO [Iranian Queer Organization, previously known as] the PGLO, the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization, founded just a couple of years ago to combat homophobia in Iran and to provide gay Iranians with a virtual meeting space, online and in person.
We hear stories of a man and a MTF (male-to-female) transgendered woman who are tortured, physically and psychologically, by their surroundings. The man talks about being gang-raped by the members of Iran's secret service. The woman speaks out on the anger her family feels towards her sexuality, ordering her to stay in her bedroom and never go out.
Sadly, where
Out of Iran seems to lack substance is in the narration of the documentary. In fact, Solomon's way of talking is so sensationalist, at one point, you feel like you're watching some reality TV show where someone is about to win something big time ("…and the BIG winner is….!"). In the same pattern, pejorative vocabulary used to portray Iran as hell for gay men and women is a slight bit far-fetched. Of course, as a conservative regime-ruled country, Iran is a dangerous place to be gay in, but it is equally dangerous to be a moderate woman, to walk around in the public without a head covering, to oppose the government, to speak out for secularism, to defend Jews (though, this one, with close to 30.000 Jews in Tehran, is also arguable).
Solomon proves once again his love for anything anti-Islamic and pro-Jewish, and though this documentary has nothing to do with Jews, it indirectly helps further the reasoning used by Israel to prove that Iran is a threat to the world.
Evan Solomon makes reference to two men who were executed in Iran two years ago for allegedly "homosexual activities" and who have caused international uproar in the human rights community worldwide. Official human rights sources say it's unclear whether or not these two men were executed for being gay or for other reasons,
including sexually assaulting a 13-year old boy. This has not been proven partly due to closed-door and hidden-evidence court processes, as
Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International have repeatedly stated in the past.
A number of primarily North American publications, including
Gay City News ran the story as one of a gay execution, which provoked dozens of protests against the executions.
Pet Shop Boys apparently dedicated a song to the two executed men on their new album.
Scott Long of the Human Rights Watch says it's hard to prove whether or not the case was that of a gay execution, due to a - the families' feeling humiliated, b - the court process being closed to the public and c - the general public fearing government reaction if they speak out on specific cases. It is not even a question that Iran would execute men for homosexual acts. In fact, according to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Association, though not proven, it is alleged that 96 men and women have been hanged in 2005 for various reasons that may include sexuality [IGLHRA does not specify]. It's not what I am questioning in this post. What I am wondering about is the sensationalist nature to the media reports that attribute any slight suspicion to a fact and make gossip the truth.
Rather, what CBC TV and Gay City News, among other media outlets, seem to be doing is enforcing the culture of "Iran is bad, we are good". As an Iranian gay activist filmmaker testifies in a video taken at a Human Rights Watch forum in NYC last year, this sort of sensationalist reporting is causing further marginalization of gay rights issues in countries like Iran and Iraq. When Americans urge the US Army, an occupying force, to protect Iraq's gays, they mean well, but what they end up contributing to is an association of Iraq's gays with the occupier, that is, the United States. As a result, Iraqi/Irani gays are seen as products of the American occupation/influence.
Secondly, the reporting clearly aimed at furthering the journalists' careers is another Canadian/American media push for public reactions against Iran's current government. In fact, the documentary is part of the anti-Iran and pro-American republican foreign policy propaganda. Sadly, what is true is hard to distinguish from media bias nowadays, there's that much of it everywhere.
Yes, the government of Iran has many problems and Ahmadinejad is not exactly the smartest person to be in power (whoever denies the Holocaust is missing a few marbles), and no, the mullahs should not have a slight bit of power, but in the end, things are not always so black and white.
We can't continue to impose our way of living on others, but we can support them in doing so and protect them when feel compelled to do it. Iranian/Iraqi/Middle Eastern activists cannot solve the issues on their own, of course they need our help. Perhaps they simply need to know that up until 1970, the Western world thought all gays were literally mad and if it weren't for those who stood up for their own rights, we would still live in a Canada of mental hospitals for curing homosexuality. In fact, we would still live like in parts of the United States, where some of those hospitals still exist. It's inspiring to see young Iranian gay s stand up for their rights, despite the risk involved. Unfortunately, it will take many of those men and women to show Iran that it cannot continue denying the existence of homosexuality within its society.
For that matter, it will take just as many Kosovar gay men and women to prove that being gay is not a western import. Sadly, though free of extrajudicial executions, Kosova is not far from Iran in its treatment of gays and lesbians. To be gay in Kosova means to be branded and peder, the Albanian and Serbian equivalent of faggot, is the worst word you could say to someone. It comes to show the kind of thinking that still exists in today's Kosova.
Sources used:
Biased Reporting - Gay Executions in Iran? - excerpt from a Human Rights Watch panel [YouTube]Gays feed into Anti-Gay Hysteria - excerpt from a Human Rights Watch panel [YouTube]
Out of Iran - The Persecution of Homosexuals in the Islamic Republic of Iran - CBC Television [You Tube]
Iran - Have a Sex-Change on Us - Report from the "Al-Arabiya" TV network[YouTube]
Reported Executions in Iran
- International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
Iran Hacks Web Sites to burry anti-gay pogrom - Doug Ireland [reporter for Gay City News]
Transsexuality in Iran - Big Queer BlogLabels: amnesty international, Canada, gay rights, homophobia, human rights, human rights watch, iran, Kosova, Kosovo
8 years after the brutal beating death of Matthew Shepard and dozens of other youths across the United States, the US House of Representatives was still hesitant about voting in protection for individuals claiming human rights abuse based on their sexuality.
