Molkara started to write letters to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then in exile in Iraq, asking for religious advice about being assigned the wrong gender at birth. In one of these letters, she said that her gender had been clear since she was two years old, as she used to apply chalk to her face to imitate putting on makeup.[3] Khomeini had already written in 1963 that corrective surgeries for intersex people are not against Islamic law, and his answer was based on this existing idea rather than developing a new fatwa for transgender people. He suggested she live as a woman, which included dressing as one.[6]
…
Molkara continued to campaign for her right to get gender-affirming surgery. In 1985, she confronted Khomeini in his home in North Tehran. She wore a man’s suit, carried the Quran, and she tied shoes around her neck.[3][6] This was a reference to the Ashura festival, and also indicated that she was looking for refuge. Molkara was held back and beaten by security guards until Khomeini’s brother, Hassan Pasandide, intervened.[3][6] He took Molkara into his house, where she pleaded her case, yelling “I’m a woman, I’m a woman!”[3] His security guards were suspicious about her chest, as they thought she could be carrying explosives. She revealed they were her breasts, as she developed them using hormone therapy.[3] Having heard her story, Ahmad Khomeini was touched and took Molkara to speak to his father, where he asked three of his doctors about the surgery in an attempt to make a well-informed decision.[3][6] Khomeini then decided that sex reassignment surgery was needed to allow her to carry out her religious duties.[8] This resulted in Khomeini issuing a fatwa, where he determined sex reassignment surgery to not be against Islamic law.[6] Molkara lobbied for the according medical knowledge and procedures to be implemented in Iran, and worked on helping other transgender people have access to surgeries. She completed her gender-affirming surgery in Thailand in 1997,[2] due to "unhappiness with procedures in her native country’'.[3] The Iranian government paid for her surgery, and she was able to help establish government funding for many other transgender individual’s surgeries.
it’s a joke. I saw it on twitter and thought it was funny.
Ah. Then it went straight over my head.
She wore a man’s suit, carried the Quran, and she tied shoes around her neck. This was a reference to the Ashura festival, and also indicated that she was looking for refuge. Molkara was held back and beaten by security guards until Khomeini’s brother, Hassan Pasandide, intervened.
Rough start.
Khomeini then decided that sex reassignment surgery was needed to allow her to carry out her religious duties. This resulted in Khomeini issuing a fatwa, where he determined sex reassignment surgery to not be against Islamic law. Molkara lobbied for the according medical knowledge and procedures to be implemented in Iran, and worked on helping other transgender people have access to surgeries. She completed her gender-affirming surgery in Thailand in 1997, due to "unhappiness with procedures in her native country’'. The Iranian government paid for her surgery, and she was able to help establish government funding for many other transgender individual’s surgeries.
the consequences of being friendly to transgender individuals but hostile to homosexual relationships has created some complications
They still manage to be ahead of the Western standard, and demonstrated the ability to continually analyze, rationalize, and improve, which is something I’ve never seen any mainstream Western scholar offer them credit for.
Yeah, I did read something on that while I was picking through the citations. Idk if it’s a “cure” so much as there is scripture to justify the ethical treatment of hermaphrodites and that this informs their views on transgender treatment favorably. This leads to the presumption that being gay is just an internal manifestation of being transgender, and therefore you can square the circle of scripture (pro-hermaphrodite, anti-sodomy) by asserting an individual in a gay relationship is simply an unwitting hermaphrodite who needs to present and conform with the proper gender.
In some ways, it reminds me of the virginity fetish in traditional cis-het Christian relationships that result on young people experimenting with every conceivable way of getting off that doesn’t involve breaking the hymen. People fighting so hard to adhere to the letter of the law that they abandon the intent.
Its further worth considering the treatment of different genders within orthodox Islamic faith. Trans-masc individuals enjoy a kind of social promotion into the higher rung of Islamic life, while Trans-fem individuals have to surrender their male privilege as a consequence of transitioning. Transgenderism isn’t just a “cure for homosexuality” but a cure/curse of the entire transitioned gender.
it’s a joke. I saw it on twitter and thought it was funny.
weirdly enough there is, read about Maryam Khatoon Molkara
…
Ah. Then it went straight over my head.
Rough start.
That’s absolutely news to me. TIL.
That said
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Iran#Gender_identity_and_expression
the consequences of being friendly to transgender individuals but hostile to homosexual relationships has created some complications
They still manage to be ahead of the Western standard, and demonstrated the ability to continually analyze, rationalize, and improve, which is something I’ve never seen any mainstream Western scholar offer them credit for.
I have heard they view transgenderism as a cure for homosexuality
Yeah, I did read something on that while I was picking through the citations. Idk if it’s a “cure” so much as there is scripture to justify the ethical treatment of hermaphrodites and that this informs their views on transgender treatment favorably. This leads to the presumption that being gay is just an internal manifestation of being transgender, and therefore you can square the circle of scripture (pro-hermaphrodite, anti-sodomy) by asserting an individual in a gay relationship is simply an unwitting hermaphrodite who needs to present and conform with the proper gender.
In some ways, it reminds me of the virginity fetish in traditional cis-het Christian relationships that result on young people experimenting with every conceivable way of getting off that doesn’t involve breaking the hymen. People fighting so hard to adhere to the letter of the law that they abandon the intent.
Its further worth considering the treatment of different genders within orthodox Islamic faith. Trans-masc individuals enjoy a kind of social promotion into the higher rung of Islamic life, while Trans-fem individuals have to surrender their male privilege as a consequence of transitioning. Transgenderism isn’t just a “cure for homosexuality” but a cure/curse of the entire transitioned gender.
So… real “it’s complicated” energy.
Been a longass time since I saw the word “hermaphrodite”
Just gotta spend more time reading the Quran.
No, I don’t think I will
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