Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:29:08.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Study of Transsexuality in Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Fatemeh Javaheri
Fatemeh Javaheri*
Affiliation:
Tarbiat Moallem University in Tehran
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although transsexuality and change of sex might be considered a matter of personal choice, they have some socio-cultural causes and consequences. This article aims to examine these through the illustration of transsexuality in Iran. To this end, firstly, sexual transition and the legal system in Iran will be explained. Secondly, the methodology will follow. This study uses the survey method with two separate samples: 1) transsexuality policy makers and 2) forty individual cases of transsexuals. The findings reveal that while the Iranian legal system does not ban transsexuality and sexual transition, transsexuals suffering from gender identity disorder do encounter some social and cultural problems both in their private lives and publicly. The paper concludes with a summary of research findings, and sets out recommendations and study limitations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , June 2010 , pp. 365 - 377
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 The International Society for Iranian Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank all the anonymous reviewers who helped me to improve the paper and I would like to acknowledge my debt to my colleague Dr. Janetth Blaike and also Mr. Ali Pirhushiaran for considerable contributions in translating and editing the text.

References

1 Herman-Jeglinska, A., Grabowska, A. and Dulko, S., “Masculinity, Femininity and Transsexualism,” Sexual Behavior, 31, no. 6 (2002): 527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Looy, H. and Hessel, B., “The Nature of Gender: Gender Identity in Persons Who are Intersexed or Transgendered,” Journal of Psychology and Theology, 33 (2005): 172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Di Ceglie, “Gender Identity Disorder in Young People,” Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2000): 458–466.

4 De Sutter, Paul, “Gender Reassignment and Assisted Reproduction,” Human Reproduction, 16, no. 4 (2001): 612–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Roen, K., “Transgender Theory and Embodiment the Risk of Racial Marginalization,” The Transgender Studies Reader (London, 2006): 658.Google Scholar

6 Hirchauer, S., “Medicalization of Gender Migration,” Transgender, 1 (1997): 1.Google Scholar

7 West, D. J., Homosexuality (London, 1974), 62.Google Scholar

8 Tracy, L., “Trans (Re)lations: Lesbian and Female to Male Transsexual Accounts of Identity,” Women Studies International Forum, 24, no. 3–4 (2001): 350.Google Scholar

9 Ritzer, G., Sociological Theory, 2nd edition (New York, 1988), 304.Google Scholar

10 Johnson, K., “Changing Sex, Changing Self: Theorizing Transitions in Embodied Subjectivity,” Men and Masculinities, 10, no. 1 (2007): 57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Schroch, D., Reid, L. and Boyd, E. M., “Transsexuals' Embodiment of Womanhood,” Gender and Society, 19, no. 3 (2005): 317–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Edmondson, R., “Social Capital: A Strategy for Enhancing Health?,” Social Science and Medicine, 57, no. 9 (2003): 1723–1733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Johnson, “Changing Sex, Changing Self,” 55.