Thank you so much for asking this question, because a lot of people believe Iran is a paradise for transgenders because according to Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa, a transgender can go through sexual reassignment surgery.
It is not about the transgenders' rights. It is actually a violation of their rights, because the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa was based on the idea that we have two acceptable norms, male or female. If you are anything in between, go fix yourself, you're sick. The sexual reassignment surgeries in Iran are kind of forcing gay people to go through sexual reassignment surgery.
In a research study from 2004, 45% of those people who went through sexual reassignment surgery were not transgendered individuals. They were homosexuals. They had no option. I say it's better than being killed and arrested; at least they can survive. After going through this sexual reassignment surgery, they cannot go back. That is why a lot of them committed suicide after several years, and there was a high rate of suicide among transgenders.
We had a lot of people who escaped Iran because they wanted to have surgery, and they wanted to live free. I remember in Turkey, one of my friends was even on hormone therapy. She wanted to have sexual reassignment surgery and become a women. Then she resettled in Vancouver, and after two years, she called me and said, “You know what? I think I'm gay. I'm not trans, because here I can be who I am.”
There was an indirect pressure on the people. As soon as you go to a psychologist or doctor and say, “I have a special feeling. I think I'm attracted to my same sex gender”, usually they don't tell you that you might be homosexual. They say there is another gender within you, and through the operation, they'll take it out.
I remember when I was in Iran, I went to one of the psychologists who was the head of the department in the city of Shiraz, Dr. Haghshenas. I explained to him that I was a gay activist and that I wanted to follow up with this question and collect the question from people.
He gave me a very interesting response. He told me to tell all of my friends not to go to his office because as long as he's sitting in that chair, he's a government employee. He said he has to sit there, and the person on the other side of the table is the patient. He has to prescribe medication to that person and send him or her to shock therapy. He said to tell my friends not to go into his office because basically they don't need to go in.”