The Ayatollah and the transsexual

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=586427

That Maryam Khatoon Molkara can live a normal life is due to a compassionate decision by one man: the leader of the Islamic revolution himself. By Angus McDowall in Tehran and Stephen Khan
25 November 2004

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Maryam Khatoon Molkara is the first to admit that she has had a complicated life. A plump, good-looking, middle-aged woman with strong features, she is ladylike and not a little flirtatious. "Marry me," she said. "Take me away and we'll live in Italy."

Keen not to complicate matters further, your correspondent declined the offer. Ms Molkara used to be called Fereydoon - Mr Fereydoon Molkara. And now she is a transsexual living in the Islamic Republic of Iran: someone who has volunteered to go under the veil. During the past 54 years, she has seen seismic shifts in both her body and her homeland.

Recently dozens of transsexuals - including a former Republican Guard - have been able to openly seek treatment to switch sexes. And it is largely thanks to Ms Molkara and a personal campaign that saw her twice appeal directly to the very man who charted Iran's shift to theocracy - the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Iran's Islamic government is starting to recognise people with sexual-identity disorders and allowing them to have sex-change operations and obtain new birth certificates. Some are now even recommended for treatment by clerics and the government helps fund operations.

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Geez, and here we want to burn them at the stake. What a mixed up crazy world we live in.

I wonder how many Americans know that America helped a coup against an elected democratic government and the installation of a king in Iran? I wonder if the liberal media will ever have a special edition about Iran's recent history?

Fascinating stuff.