BrendaQG
06-17-2009, 09:00 AM
Girls Don't Cry:An HBO documentary explores the growing number of transsexuals in Iran. (http://www.fairfieldweekly.com/article.cfm?aid=13397)
The documentary is called "Be like others". You can actually see parts of it on youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ID9j00av0)
Much of the best science fiction posits a society operating under a set of rules that cast our own society's unexamined assumptions in relief. Let's just say, for example, that homosexuality was a crime, punishable by death. And what if, in this same society, transsexuality were merely seen as an illness, curable with an operation partially funded by the state? But this is no Ursula Le Guin novel — this is Iran, which is second only to Thailand in the number of sex-change operations performed each year. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may claim that there are no homosexuals in Iran, but estimates of transsexuals run as high as 150,000. What happens when gender is mutable but sexual orientation is not? When science produces a medical solution for what religion prohibits? Tanaz Eshaghian, an Iranian-American filmmaker, set out to find out in Be Like Others, which premieres on HBO on June 24.
Eshaghian, who left Iran at the age of six and grew up in New York, first read about the high incidence of gender-reassignment surgery in Iran, legalized by the Ayatollah Khomeini over 25 years ago, in articles in The New York Times and The Guardian. "I really was blown away," says Eshaghian. "It was such a traditional society. It started me thinking: How is that actually being practiced and understood?"
On the surface, the journey from male to female — and almost all of Eshaghian's subjects fall into that category — is strikingly similar to the road taken in the U.S. Patients submit to rigorous counseling and must obtain psychiatric approval before proceeding with the operation. But as Eshaghian got to know these young men, it became clear that there was something else going on. "In the West, in the current discourse on sexuality, transsexuality is considered something that is biological, something that is psychological, something beyond judgment," explains Eshaghian. "In Iran, those ideas are being said, but they're being used very differently." In the West, identifying as transgender may mean a stop anywhere along a continuum, and is not necessarily equated with homosexuality. But no Iranian male is getting a sex change to live as a lesbian. Instead, sexual reassignment surgery is used, paradoxically, to enforce heterosexual norms. "We're about being individuals," explains Eshaghian. "Iran is a communal culture, so it doesn't make sense to say 'I am this, I have this desire, and I have a right to pursue that because I have certain rights as an individual.' The sense of community is different, private space is different. Your body is not your private realm."
The documentary follows several men, all patients of Iran's leading gender-reassignment surgeon, Dr. Bahram Mir Jalali, from consultation through their first year of post-op life. Most are making a choice that will sever their connection to their families forever, but they see no other options. Eshaghian cites how Vida, a 24-year-old post-op female who counsels Dr. Jalali's patients, describes the dilemma: "Imagine if, with every person you encounter, you feel that they're looking at you like you are a degenerate. It's an awful way to go through life. You try to find a way to 'correct' this, to let society know that they're looking at you in the wrong way. That's how painful it is."
The death penalty for homosexual conduct is not enforced often, but Eshaghian says that's not the real issue. "It's a shame-based culture, and these boys have internalized that feeling of shame. They want to find a way to feel like it's not their fault. There's a scene where Vida says, 'If I had cancer you would feel sorry for me. This is just like cancer, don't you understand?' They're trying to enter another logic so that it leaves the whole system of sin and shame and degeneracy and becomes medical."
You might be wondering why anyone would want to be a woman in a country in which women cannot leave the house without long sleeves, long pants and a headscarf. While Iranian feminists have made some gains in the past decade, a woman's testimony in court and right to inherit is still worth half of a man's, stoning is still the punishment for adultery, and walking the streets uncovered is punishable by up to 80 lashes. But these men have found that the hijab gives them cover from the taunts of men. There's only one problem — in order to wear a veil, a man must have a letter from the government saying that he's a pre-op transsexual.
One woman does come in for a consultation with Dr. Jalali, but she soon disappears from the film. "She had a husband so she didn't let me go home with her," says Eshaghian, who estimates the percentage of female-to-male transsexuals at about 40 percent. "The women were not as willing to come forward because they're much more successful in their society. No one can tell they had a sex change. They just look like little guys — totally, you cannot tell at all — and their families don't disown them because it's not quite that shameful to the honor of the family for a girl to become a boy."
Betraying his culture's misogyny, Dr. Jalali boasts that the women he makes are more desirable than genetic ones, but Eshaghian did not meet any transsexuals who had truly achieved their dream of living like others. So why do young men, knowing the social, economic and personal hardships they will face, continue to go under the knife? "That's very logical," says Eshaghian, mentioning that one of the men she followed decided, upon reflection, not to go through with the operation. "The rest are overwhelmed in their attempt to end this nightmare that they're going through. Here's a solution — here is a medical answer."
I don't like the way this reporter "Ann Lewinson" very pointedly calls transitioned women he only referring to them as female once and calling a transman she. It's ironic that in trying to sound liberal she actually ends up being less respectful of these peoples new gender than the government of Iran. :roll:
The documentary is called "Be like others". You can actually see parts of it on youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ID9j00av0)
Much of the best science fiction posits a society operating under a set of rules that cast our own society's unexamined assumptions in relief. Let's just say, for example, that homosexuality was a crime, punishable by death. And what if, in this same society, transsexuality were merely seen as an illness, curable with an operation partially funded by the state? But this is no Ursula Le Guin novel — this is Iran, which is second only to Thailand in the number of sex-change operations performed each year. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may claim that there are no homosexuals in Iran, but estimates of transsexuals run as high as 150,000. What happens when gender is mutable but sexual orientation is not? When science produces a medical solution for what religion prohibits? Tanaz Eshaghian, an Iranian-American filmmaker, set out to find out in Be Like Others, which premieres on HBO on June 24.
Eshaghian, who left Iran at the age of six and grew up in New York, first read about the high incidence of gender-reassignment surgery in Iran, legalized by the Ayatollah Khomeini over 25 years ago, in articles in The New York Times and The Guardian. "I really was blown away," says Eshaghian. "It was such a traditional society. It started me thinking: How is that actually being practiced and understood?"
On the surface, the journey from male to female — and almost all of Eshaghian's subjects fall into that category — is strikingly similar to the road taken in the U.S. Patients submit to rigorous counseling and must obtain psychiatric approval before proceeding with the operation. But as Eshaghian got to know these young men, it became clear that there was something else going on. "In the West, in the current discourse on sexuality, transsexuality is considered something that is biological, something that is psychological, something beyond judgment," explains Eshaghian. "In Iran, those ideas are being said, but they're being used very differently." In the West, identifying as transgender may mean a stop anywhere along a continuum, and is not necessarily equated with homosexuality. But no Iranian male is getting a sex change to live as a lesbian. Instead, sexual reassignment surgery is used, paradoxically, to enforce heterosexual norms. "We're about being individuals," explains Eshaghian. "Iran is a communal culture, so it doesn't make sense to say 'I am this, I have this desire, and I have a right to pursue that because I have certain rights as an individual.' The sense of community is different, private space is different. Your body is not your private realm."
The documentary follows several men, all patients of Iran's leading gender-reassignment surgeon, Dr. Bahram Mir Jalali, from consultation through their first year of post-op life. Most are making a choice that will sever their connection to their families forever, but they see no other options. Eshaghian cites how Vida, a 24-year-old post-op female who counsels Dr. Jalali's patients, describes the dilemma: "Imagine if, with every person you encounter, you feel that they're looking at you like you are a degenerate. It's an awful way to go through life. You try to find a way to 'correct' this, to let society know that they're looking at you in the wrong way. That's how painful it is."
The death penalty for homosexual conduct is not enforced often, but Eshaghian says that's not the real issue. "It's a shame-based culture, and these boys have internalized that feeling of shame. They want to find a way to feel like it's not their fault. There's a scene where Vida says, 'If I had cancer you would feel sorry for me. This is just like cancer, don't you understand?' They're trying to enter another logic so that it leaves the whole system of sin and shame and degeneracy and becomes medical."
You might be wondering why anyone would want to be a woman in a country in which women cannot leave the house without long sleeves, long pants and a headscarf. While Iranian feminists have made some gains in the past decade, a woman's testimony in court and right to inherit is still worth half of a man's, stoning is still the punishment for adultery, and walking the streets uncovered is punishable by up to 80 lashes. But these men have found that the hijab gives them cover from the taunts of men. There's only one problem — in order to wear a veil, a man must have a letter from the government saying that he's a pre-op transsexual.
One woman does come in for a consultation with Dr. Jalali, but she soon disappears from the film. "She had a husband so she didn't let me go home with her," says Eshaghian, who estimates the percentage of female-to-male transsexuals at about 40 percent. "The women were not as willing to come forward because they're much more successful in their society. No one can tell they had a sex change. They just look like little guys — totally, you cannot tell at all — and their families don't disown them because it's not quite that shameful to the honor of the family for a girl to become a boy."
Betraying his culture's misogyny, Dr. Jalali boasts that the women he makes are more desirable than genetic ones, but Eshaghian did not meet any transsexuals who had truly achieved their dream of living like others. So why do young men, knowing the social, economic and personal hardships they will face, continue to go under the knife? "That's very logical," says Eshaghian, mentioning that one of the men she followed decided, upon reflection, not to go through with the operation. "The rest are overwhelmed in their attempt to end this nightmare that they're going through. Here's a solution — here is a medical answer."
I don't like the way this reporter "Ann Lewinson" very pointedly calls transitioned women he only referring to them as female once and calling a transman she. It's ironic that in trying to sound liberal she actually ends up being less respectful of these peoples new gender than the government of Iran. :roll: