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Transgender Woman Beaten
A campaigner for transgender rights is Maryam Hatoon Molkara, Maryam is a Male to Female. Maryam requested access to sexual reassignment surgery from the religious government. She was then beaten, but the government later gave her access to sexual reassignment surgery with a letter. Since then the letter is known as the “fatwa” that legalizes sexual reassignment therapy in Iran. -
After The Revolution
The new government that was established after the 1979 Iranian Revolution classified transsexuals and transvestites the same as gays and lesbians, who were condemned by Islam and faced the punishment of whipping and death under Iran's penal code. -
After The Revolution Cont.
Since the 1979 Iranian revolution the following policy was instituted; “All sexual relations that occur outside a traditional, heterosexual marriage (i.e. sodomy or adultery) are illegal and no legal distinction is made between consensual or nonconsensual sodomy. Homosexual relations that occur between consenting adults in private are a crime and carry a maximum punishment of death..." (Revoly.com) -
Transsexuals Classified As Heterosexual
In 1986, transsexuals were re-classified as being "heterosexual,” and therefore tolerated a bit more. -
1979 Revolution
A 1987 report of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights estimated that as many as 7,000 people were shot, hanged, stoned or burned to death after the 1979 revolution. -
Infamous Remark By Iranian President
On September 24, 2007, at a convention Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, in response to a question; “We don't have homosexuals, like in your country. I don't know who told you that.” An aide later said that he was misquoted and what he had said was; “compared to American society, we don't have many homosexuals.” The aide then clarified that; “because of historical, religious and cultural differences homosexuality is less common in Iran and the Islamic world than in the West.”