Question: What country has the most transgenders?

Transgender rights in Iran









Part of a series onTransgender topics
Gender identities
Agender (genderless)
Androgyne
Bigender
Cisgender
Gender bender
Non-binary (or genderqueer)
Third gender
Akava'ine
Bakla
Bissu
Calabai
Fa'afafine
Fakaleiti
Hijra
Kathoey
Khanith
Koekchuch
Māhū
Mak nyah
Mukhannathun
Muxe
Albanian sworn virgins
Takatāpui
Travesti
Two-spirit
Winkte
Trans man
Trans woman
Transmasculine
Transfeminine
Transsexual
Health care and medicine
Detransition
Gender dysphoria
In children
Health care
Hormone therapy
Pregnancy
Sex reassignment
Surgery
Therapy
To female
To male
Transsexual
Rights issues
Discrimination
Inequality
Non-binary
Transmisogyny
Transphobia
Rights
Movement
Non-binary, third gender
Organizations
Military service
Toilets
Bathroom bills
Unisex
Violence
Trans bashing
Unlawful killings
Trans panic
Yogyakarta Principles
Society and culture
Characters
Fictional
Film and television
LGBT-related films
Events
Awareness Week
Day of Remembrance
Day of Visibility
March
LGBT
Flags
History
People
Non-binary
Publications
Religion
Sports
Transitioning
Youth
more
Theory and concepts
Ambiphilia, androphilia, gynephilia
Childhood gender nonconformity
Cisgender/cissexual
Cross-dressing
Gender identity
Gender binary
Gender-sexuality questioning
Gender variance
Postgenderism
Transfeminism
Transmisogyny
By country
Argentina
Australia
Rights
Re Kevin
Brazil
Canada
Bill C-16, 2016
Rights
China
Germany
India
Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014
Tamil Nadu
Iran
Ireland
New Zealand
Singapore
South Africa
Turkey
United Kingdom
Rights
Gender Recognition Act 2004
United States
Cafeteria riot
Disenfranchisement
History
Legal history
Rights
Title IX
See also
Gender
Intersex
LGBT
Sex
sex assignment
Sex and gender distinction
Sexual orientation
 LGBTportal
 Transgenderportalvt
Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the issue of trans identity in Iran had never been officially addressed by the government. Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, transgender individuals were officially recognized by the government and allowed to undergo sex reassignment surgery. As of 2008, Iran carries out more sex change operations than any other nation in the world except Thailand. The government provides up to half the cost for those needing financial assistance, and a sex change is recognised on the birth certificate.[1] As of 2017, the government provided transgender persons financial assistance in the form of grants of up to 25 million tomans ($1,730 USD).[2]
History
Pre-1979
Surgery for intersex conditions have been practiced in Iran since the 1930s.[3]:252[4]:25
In 1963, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini wrote a book in which he stated that there was no religious restriction on corrective surgery for intersex individuals, though this did not apply to those without physical ambiguity in sex organs. At the time Khomeini was a radical, anti-Shah revolutionary and his fatwas did not carry any weight with the Imperial government, which did not have any specific policies regarding transgender individuals.
After the Revolution
The new religious government that came to be established after the 1979 Iranian Revolution classed transgender people and crossdressers with gays and lesbians, who were condemned in shah's era  and faced the punishment of lashing or even death under Iran's penal code.
One early campaigner for transgender rights was Maryam Hatoon Molkara, who had been assigned male at birth but identified as female. Before the revolution, she had longed to become physically female but could not afford surgery and wanted religious authorization. In 1975, she began to write letters to Khomeini, who was to become the leader of the revolution and was in exile. After the revolution, she was fired, forcedly injected with male hormones, and institutionalized. She was later released with help from her connections and continued to lobby many other leaders. Later she went to see Khomeini, who had returned to Iran. During this visit, she was subjected to beatings from his guards. Khomeini, however, did give her a letter to authorize her sex reassignment operation, which she later did in 1997.[5] Due to this fatwa, issued in 1987, transgender women in Iran have been able to live as women until they can afford surgery, have surgical reassignment, have their birth certificates and all official documents issued to them in their new gender, and get married to men.[6]
Present day
Khomeini's original fatwa has since been reconfirmed by the current leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, and is also supported by many other Iranian clerics.[1] However, there is still a great deal of stigma attached to the idea of transgender and gender reassignment in ordinary Iranian society, and most transgender people, after completing their transition, are advised to maintain discretion about their past.[1] Once a transgender individual has undergone sex reassignment, that person legally becomes the new sex. All legal documents, such as birth certificates and passports, are also changed accordingly.[1]
Hojatoleslam Kariminia, a mid-level cleric who is in favor of transgender rights, has stated that he wishes "to suggest that the right of transsexuals to change their gender is a human right" and that he is attempting to "introduce transsexuals to the people through my work and in fact remove the stigma or the insults that sometimes attach to these people."
Transsexual surgery is not actually legal under Iranian civil law, although the operations are carried out. Iranian law has both secular and religious components, and secular jurisprudence says nothing about transgender issues. In this case, Sharia and fatwas take up the slack until it does, and it is under the religious law and Khomeini’s fatwa during the interlude that surgery can be carried out.[3]:250, 258
UNHCR's 2001 report says that sex reassignment surgery is performed frequently and openly in Iran, and that homosexual and cross-dressing people, although unrelated to trans identity, would be safe as long as they keep a low profile. However, the Safra Project's 2004 report considers UNHCR's report over-optimistic. The Safra Project's report suggests that UNHCR underestimated legal pressure over transgender and LGBT matters.
The Safra Project report further states that currently, it is not possible for presumed transgender individuals to choose not to undergo surgery - if they are approved for sex reassignment, they are expected to undergo treatment immediately. Those who wish to remain "non-operative" (as well as those who cross-dress and/or identify as genderqueer) are considered their gender assigned at birth, and as such they are likely to face harassment as being homosexuals and subject to the same laws barring homosexual acts.
However, a 2016 study analyzes European and American literature about the topic as characterizing legalized transgender surgery at least partly motivated by a desire to enforce a heteronormative binary conception of gender, including 'forced' surgery for some gay people, and critiques that view as an oversimplification.[3]:250
In 2018, it was reported that it is very difficult for transgender people to find work. Moreover, transgender people face general harassment.[7]
Summary table

See also

List of transgender-related topics
Heteronormativity
LGBT rights in Iran
Be Like Others, a documentary film about transgender people in Iran
Facing Mirrors, a 2011 film with a transgender character in Iran
Notes
 Robert Tait, , and  on The Guardian. Gives details on Molkara's plea.
Frances Harrison, , BBC.
UNHCR, , 7th European Country of Origin Information Seminar Berlin, 11–12 June 2001 - Final report. Transsexual part is on pp.104.
Safra Project . 2004 report, and consider UNHCR report underestimate the pressure. Mentions gender diversity on pp, 15.


Further reading
Najmabadi, Afsaneh. 2014. Professing selves: transsexuality and same-sex desire in contemporary Iran. Durham ; London: Duke University Press, 2014. ISBN9780822355434
Najmabadi, Afsaneh. "What Can We Learn From Transsexuality in Iran?". In: Schreiber, Gerhard. Transsexuality in Theology and Neuroscience: Findings, Controversies, and Perspectives. Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter 2016 (ISBN978-3-11-044080-5), pp. 175-194.
Bluck, Sahar.  "Transsexual in Iran: A Fatwa for Freedom?" (Chapter 3). In: Pullen, Christopher. LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media. Palgrave Macmillan. 29 February 2012. ISBN0230353517, 9780230353510.
 (BBC News, 25 February 2008)