Changing Sex to Escape Death (IranVNC.com)

Arsham Parsi has been on several fact-finding missions in Turkey, meeting and helping many Iranian gay and lesbian refugees, as part of his Iranian Queer Organization. He says many of them have no choice but to undergo sex change operation or face death.

Arsham Parsi, Executive Director, Iranian Queer Organization: "The government pushed them for the operation. They want to normalize society and recognize two genders men or women only, and tells them if you're transgender go for the operation and you become either male or female."

In a society, where many homosexuals are generally shunned by their families and harassed by police and religious authorities to the point of execution, sex change operation may be the ultimate yet risky escape.

(GFX: Article 110: "The punishment for sodomy where penetration has occurred is death, and the method of execution is at the discretion of the Sharia judge.")

Parsi: "Many of them committed suicide after the operation. Many of them became prostitutes because they couldn't find a job. They cannot have their family's support, which they have lost after the operation."

This Iranian man has just had this operation.

Iranian transgender: "Our situation is not good here in Iran. We are harassed by people and the legal system. But because we can get a legal certificate we're a bit better than homosexuals."

Government-subsidized sex change operations require from people like him by law a certificate signed by the religious authorities declaring mental illness.

As the Guardian reports, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in the early eighties legalizing sex-change surgery. This made Iran today "a magnet for patients from Eastern European and Arab cities seeking to change their genders."

Parsi: "About $10,000 they have to pay. It is a good business for the doctor, the government and everybody. And the victims are transgender people. 45 percent of transgender operations in Iran are not transgender, they are homosexual. Gay and lesbians want to change their sexuality for just a little bit more freedom."

Dr. Mir-Jalili is a Paris-trained surgeon and Iran's leading specialist in sex change surgery. He performed 320 gender operations in the past 12 years. He told the Guardian he would have carried out "fewer than 40 such procedures over the same period," if it wasn't for Iran's strict ban on homosexuality.

From his exile in Toronto, Canada, Arsham helped 80 Iranian gay and lesbian refugees to come to North America last year. In few months, 40 more will start a new life in Canada and Australia.

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