Much of world’s LGBT people have been fooled into thinking Iran is a welcoming place for transgender people. It’s a convenient perception especially with the increased awareness of Islamophobia. After all, many argue, the government offers free sexual reassignment surgery(SRS). What more could be asked for?
And yes, transsexuality has been officially legal since a fatwa was issued in 1987 by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The Guardian reported that the religious ruling (allowing SRS) was issued thanks to the activities in the 1980s of Maryam Khatoon Molkara, a campaigner for the rights of transsexuals in Iran, who wrote to Khomeini asking him to determine their fate. Molkara had herself previously been a man, and worked for the state TV before the Islamic revolution in 1979. In the mid-70s, she started to write to Khomeini, who was in exile, asking for religious authorisation for a sex-change operation. In 1987, after a decade of campaigning, she went in person to the home of Khomeini, by then the country’s supreme leader, and came back with a fatwa in hand that allowed transsexuals to choose their sex.
Meet refugee Martha Honey, fleeing Iran’s transgender eugenics
Added by Kelli Busey on August 8, 2015.
Saved under General
Tags: Iran, Iran's transgender eugenics, Iranian final solution, Martha Honey, Trans Refugee
Martha Honey
Much of world’s LGBT people have been fooled into thinking Iran is a welcoming place for transgender people. It’s a convenient perception especially with the increased awareness of Islamophobia. After all, many argue, the government offers free sexual reassignment surgery(SRS). What more could be asked for?
And yes, transsexuality has been officially legal since a fatwa was issued in 1987 by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The Guardian reported that the religious ruling (allowing SRS) was issued thanks to the activities in the 1980s of Maryam Khatoon Molkara, a campaigner for the rights of transsexuals in Iran, who wrote to Khomeini asking him to determine their fate. Molkara had herself previously been a man, and worked for the state TV before the Islamic revolution in 1979. In the mid-70s, she started to write to Khomeini, who was in exile, asking for religious authorisation for a sex-change operation. In 1987, after a decade of campaigning, she went in person to the home of Khomeini, by then the country’s supreme leader, and came back with a fatwa in hand that allowed transsexuals to choose their sex.
SRS isn’t just offered, it’s mandated. Trans people must have it. It’s also a requirement for gay people. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that LGBT people do not exist in Iran during a Q and A at Columbia University in 2007. Those in attendance started laughing thinking that he was joking. Ahmadinejad was dead serious. Iran’s final solution is nothing short of government-sponsored eugenics.
The operation is performed haphazardly and without medical support afterwards. Iran’s final solution leaves many of its victims in extreme pain, some even defecating through the torn walls of their vagina. The point of the operation isn’t to help a person to have a fulfilling life. It is meant to make sure that individual can not reproduce.
Martha Honey told Planet Transgender “Iran is a hard country even for heterosexual people but what about trans people? Most of them prostitute themselves or kill themselves after surgery. I refused the government’s mandated sterilization so it was impossible for me to live in Iran.”
“I’m really worried about trans people in Iran. Most of them don’t need surgery but have it because the government and society pressures them to do so. The situation in Iran for trans people is horrible. They are alone without any support and they have to fight with the government and police too. Trans girls are not accepted by the government just cisgender females and males are.”
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE:
Tags:
news