Be Like Others: Rather Than Accept Homosexuality, Iran Encourages Gender Reassignment Surgery
by Jessica Mosby
– USA –
Last year Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an audience at Columbia University, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals, like in your country.” His characteristically outrageous comment was met with laughter and boos; discrimination is no laughing matter in a country where homosexuality is punishable by death.
But after seeing the documentary film Be Like Others Ahmadinejad’s statement may be technically true. The 76 minute documentary by Iranian-American filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian, whose previous film Love Iranian-American Style documented her Iranian family’s involvement in her love life, profiles Iran’s leading gender reassignment doctor Dr. Bahram Mehrjalali (also spelled as Dr. Bahram Mir Jalai) and his patients.
A film about gender reassignment, a relatively well-known procedure, is not particularly ground-breaking but what makes Be Like Others so mesmerizing is its exploration of the Iranian government’s support of the medical procedure. To undergo the surgery, the candidate must acquire the government’s approval. In return, the government pays for at least half the costs; then post-surgery the patient’s gender is officially changed on his or her birth certificate.
The legality of gender reassignment surgery means that people can gain or lose rights based on their new gender. In a country where women are treated as second-class citizens, women can gain all of the rights that men enjoy by undergoing a medical procedure. At the same time, men who choose to become women must follow Iran’s strict clothing laws; they could be stoned to death as punishment if they don’t. And they will only receive half the inheritance of their male counterparts.
In this society that is anything but progressive, transsexuality is widely accepted – even encouraged. Eshaghian was therefore able to film the documentary with the government’s permission; she did not put anyone who was filmed in danger.
Ayatollah Khomeini legalized gender reassignment surgery over 20 years ago for “diagnosed transsexuals.” While Islamic Religious Law allows people to change their gender if they are transgender, or claim to be – homosexuality is illegal. The idea is that transsexuality (and really homosexuality) is a medical condition that can be fixed. One cleric likens gender reassignment surgery to “changing wheat to flour to bread.”
Diagnosing transsexuals, at least as portrayed in the film, seems rather dubious. While patients must undergo a psychiatric evaluation before the government will permit and fund the surgery, almost any man who claims “I’m attracted to other men, so I must really be a woman” is given the go-ahead.
Dr. Mehrjalali, a French-trained surgeon who has performed over 450 gender reassignment surgeries in the last 12 years, claims that he is able to weed out the fakes by graphically describing the horrific surgery. But his patients are also very desperate people who, without the surgery, face a life of discrimination and even death. After watching Dr. Mehrjalali interact with potential patients in his Tehran office, you realize that he is one part doctor and one part salesman; when meeting with masculine female patients he encourages them by calling them “Mr.” and tells feminine male patients that “attracting men will be easier” post-operation.
While the Iranian government fully supports gender reassignment, many families, especially those from more rural parts of the country, are not very accepting. Some patients must choose between their families and having the surgery.
Ali Askar, a young gay man from outside Tehran, is told by his family pre-surgery that he will be disowned if he becomes a woman; his father even says that he would kill Ali with rat poison to stop him from having the surgery and bringing shame upon his family. But Ali, who is depressed and who has been teased his entire life, does go through with the very painful surgery, although he admits that he would never touch “God’s work” if he didn’t live in Iran. One year later, Ali (now Negar) seems to regret her decision as her family has completely shunned her and her life has taken a sad turn: she is even more depressed, homeless, and working as a prostitute.
But not all of the people portrayed in the film are dissatisfied with their decision. Anoosh, a 20 year old chubby gay man who often wears makeup and feminine clothing, decides to undergo surgery to please his boyfriend Ali. The whole situation is very upsetting to watch because Ali treats Anoosh poorly and seems ashamed of their relationship. He encourages Anoosh to become a woman so they can openly be a couple and avoid harassment by Iran’s morality police – the government agency tasked with enforcing Islamic Religious Law, especially the dress code. The morality police’s tactics are often brutal; “crimes” are generally committed by women who show their ankles or let a small headscarf slip back to reveal their hairlines.
The idea of any young person undergoing an irreversible surgery for a single relationship seems ill-advised. Anoosh’s widowed mother and younger brother try to discourage him from the surgery. His mother tells him, “This is just some desire of yours, and you’re ruining our whole life on a whim.”
But Anoosh decides to undergo gender reassignment surgery anyway. Post-surgery, Anoosh (now Anahita), is surprisingly happy. She is still dating Ali, but he doesn’t want to marry her and seems emotionally distant despite their relationship’s now being legitimized. Most crucial to her newfound happiness is her mother’s support; she completely accepts her new daughter even saying, “I always wanted a daughter and I think it’s a gift from God that I finally got one, even at this late stage in my life.”
Anahita’s happiness, especially in contrast to Negar’s regret and disillusionment, speaks to the universal truth that a person can handle any situation given support. The disparate outcomes also reveal a difference in female- versus male-led Iranian households: Anoosh’s mother was not concerned with the family’s honor and therefore not ashamed of having an effeminate son who decided to become a woman, but most male-led households put pride above their marginalized children’s happiness.
Iran’s support of gender reassignment surgery may help a minority of people who decide to change their gender via surgery on their own – not as the result of harassment and marginalization. Many of the people portrayed in Be Like Others do not seem to fully grasp the life-long consequences of their decision, especially for men who become women and then lose all power in a patriarchal society.
But for people like Anoosh and Ali, lower middle class men who want to wear makeup and women’s clothing, their options are limited: they cannot leave the country on a passport until they’ve completing military service, nor can they stay in Iran living just under the radar and dressing in women’s clothing because the morality police will arrest them for causing “social unrest.” If their families have enough money, these men can be sent abroad. Everyone profiled in Be Like Others lacks the economic means to leave Iran, so surgery became their only means to survive in a very oppressive society.
Eshaghian never explores how Dr. Mehrjalali’s female patients fare after becoming men, creating an unbalanced perspective. Generally speaking, women who undergo gender reassignment surgery have an easier time adjusting, especially in a male-dominated society. At a post-screening Q&A at the Sundance Film Festival, Eshaghian said that the women who became men were more successful than their male to female counterparts; she said that the women just “look like little men” and are treated better since Iran’s religiously dictated culture does not discriminate against masculine women as much as it marginalizes feminine men.
Be Like Others explores a little publicized and very disturbing side of traditional Iranian culture. The idea that a government would essentially force young people into irreversible surgery as a means to conform with social norms is just another example of Iran’s extremely oppressive society. The unfortunate reality is that even with a wider audience via international distribution, the film will probably change nothing. The only real way for homosexuals to live freely is to leave the country because Ahmadinejad was right in saying that, at least in the government’s mind, there are no homosexuals in Iran.
– All photos appear courtesy of the filmmakers.
About the Author
Jessica Mosby is a writer and critic living in Berkeley, California. In the rare moments when she’s not traveling across the United States for work, Jessica enjoys listening to public radio, buying organic food at local farmers markets, trolling junk stores, and collecting owl-themed tchotchke.
Wow, Jessica, thanks for this. I was aware of Iran’s repression of homosexuals, but this is a whole other aspect that is even more shocking than Ahmadinejad’s statement denying that Iran had homosexuals.
This government policy of pressuring homosexuals to change their sex through surgery is so wrong, so ignorant, on so many levels I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
But I do wonder if Ahmadinejahd and his government really believe all homosexuals are simply people caught in the wrong body or if it is strictly a governmental solution in a non-secular state? Surely they can’t really believe this, just as I don’t buy that Ahmandinejad actually believes the Holocaust didn’t happen. I think he is just a very dangerous provacateur with a clear, albeit disturbing, mission.