hwbs
02-08-2008, 06:59 PM
By LUKAS I. ALPERT
February 7, 2008 -- Iran has been called many things, but a progressive nation isn't one of them.
But while bearded morality police race around the nation condemning homosexuals to death and flogging women whose headscarves they deem too revealing, the fervently conservative Islamic republic is happy to pay for transsexuals to undergo sex-change operations.
"[They] are not to blame," Hassan Moussavi Chalak of Iran's State Welfare Organization told Bloomberg News. "They have rights such as every other citizen."
So the government plans to spend $650,000 this year on the procedures.
Dr. Bahram Mir Jalali is one of 10 sex-change doctors in the country and says he has performed more than 460 operations in the past 12 years.
The fanatical religious government authorized the operations in 1984 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a decree deeming transsexuals to be people who are "trapped" in the wrong body.
Some experts call the approach "enlightened thinking."
"Would you see President Bush or Tony Blair making such a statement?" said Bernard Reed, founder of the Gender Identity Research and Education Society in England.
At the same time, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boldly proclaimed during a speech at Columbia University last year that there were no homosexuals in Iran.
"In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have that like in your country," he said last September. "In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon."
Meanwhile, 18-year-old Hasti - born a male named Nasser, but now a woman - says a sex change helped her live comfortably in Iranian society.
"I prefer going out with the chador [full length robe] in the heat of the summer than being considered a homosexual," she told Bloomberg News. "I've liberated myself from society, from people's perception of me."
The transformation is also beneficial to the rest of society, said Mahdi Kamkar, a psychologist who works with transsexuals.
"In closed cultures, a transsexual will be encouraged to clarify things, starting from his or her appearance," Kamkar said. "Dressing up or behaving as the other sex is not satisfying enough."
So the government agreed to spend nearly $4,000 for Hasti's operation. Hasti says she is grateful.
"I realized that I had a problem and that I needed to solve it through an operation," she said. "Even if lots of negative things are said about the regime, they also do things that are good."
With Bloomberg News
lukas.alpert@nypost.com
February 7, 2008 -- Iran has been called many things, but a progressive nation isn't one of them.
But while bearded morality police race around the nation condemning homosexuals to death and flogging women whose headscarves they deem too revealing, the fervently conservative Islamic republic is happy to pay for transsexuals to undergo sex-change operations.
"[They] are not to blame," Hassan Moussavi Chalak of Iran's State Welfare Organization told Bloomberg News. "They have rights such as every other citizen."
So the government plans to spend $650,000 this year on the procedures.
Dr. Bahram Mir Jalali is one of 10 sex-change doctors in the country and says he has performed more than 460 operations in the past 12 years.
The fanatical religious government authorized the operations in 1984 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a decree deeming transsexuals to be people who are "trapped" in the wrong body.
Some experts call the approach "enlightened thinking."
"Would you see President Bush or Tony Blair making such a statement?" said Bernard Reed, founder of the Gender Identity Research and Education Society in England.
At the same time, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boldly proclaimed during a speech at Columbia University last year that there were no homosexuals in Iran.
"In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have that like in your country," he said last September. "In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon."
Meanwhile, 18-year-old Hasti - born a male named Nasser, but now a woman - says a sex change helped her live comfortably in Iranian society.
"I prefer going out with the chador [full length robe] in the heat of the summer than being considered a homosexual," she told Bloomberg News. "I've liberated myself from society, from people's perception of me."
The transformation is also beneficial to the rest of society, said Mahdi Kamkar, a psychologist who works with transsexuals.
"In closed cultures, a transsexual will be encouraged to clarify things, starting from his or her appearance," Kamkar said. "Dressing up or behaving as the other sex is not satisfying enough."
So the government agreed to spend nearly $4,000 for Hasti's operation. Hasti says she is grateful.
"I realized that I had a problem and that I needed to solve it through an operation," she said. "Even if lots of negative things are said about the regime, they also do things that are good."
With Bloomberg News
lukas.alpert@nypost.com