Homosexual relationships are banned in Iran, but the country allows sex change operations and hundreds of men have elected for surgery to change their lives.
"He wants to kill me. He keeps telling me to come home so he can kill me. He had put rat poison in my tea."
For Ali Askar, at age 24, the decision to become a woman came at a heavy cost. His father threatened to kill him if he went ahead with surgery.
Islam has a cure for people suffering from this problem. If they want to change their gender, the path is open
He could not work with men because they sexually harassed him and made fun of him. But he could not work with women because he was not officially a woman.
"I am Iranian. I want to live here and this society tells you: you have to be either a man or a woman".
Sex changes have been legal in Iran since Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa - a religious edict - authorising them for "diagnosed transsexuals" 25 years ago.
The government even provides up to half the cost for those needing financial assistance and a sex change is recognised on your birth certificate.
"Islam has a cure for people suffering from this problem. If they want to change their gender, the path is open," says Hojatol Islam Muhammad Mehdi Kariminia, the religious cleric responsible for gender reassignment.
"The discussion is fundamentally separate from a discussion regarding homosexuals. Absolutely not related. Homosexuals are doing something unnatural and against religion," says Kariminia. "It is clearly stated in our Islamic law that such behaviour is not allowed because it disrupts the social order."
I wanted to live like everyone else, like all the other boys and girls walking around. My goal was simply to find my own identity
Many of his patients are struggling to figure out what to do because they do not fit into the norm. They see Dr Mir-Jalali as a saviour.
"Transsexuals feel that their body doesn't match how they feel," he says. "Whatever you do, psychiatrists, pills, prison, punishment, nothing helps".
Another of his patients, Anoosh, 21, was deeply unhappy before surgery and felt pressured to leave school because of his feminine behaviour and appearance.
"I wanted to live like everyone else, like all the other boys and girls walking around. My goal was simply to find my own identity."
Like many young people in Iran, Anoosh struggled to reconcile his sexual identity with the wishes of family, community and culture. He says he was continuously harassed and threatened with arrest by Iran's morality police before he had his sex change.
His boyfriend was also keen for him to go ahead with the sex change because 90% of the people they passed in the street said something nasty.
"When he goes out in female clothes and has a female appearance it is easier for me to persuade myself that he is a girl. It makes the relationship better," he says.
For Anoosh's younger brother, Ali Reza, it was harder to come to terms with Anoosh's desire to become a woman.
"I have had a brother for many years. I can't just suddenly accept him as my sister. If I refer to him as my brother he gets upset. But it's hard for me to believe this".
"My child was meant to be the star of the family. I counted on him to be something other than this".
If you are a male with female tendencies, they don't see that as something natural or genetic. They see it as someone who is consciously acting dirty
Documentary film maker Tanaz Eshaghian spent weeks filming Anoosh, Ali and other transsexuals in Iran. She thinks that part of what is driving many of the boys to operate is the desire to avoid shame.
"If you are a male with female tendencies, they don't see that as something natural or genetic. They see it as someone who is consciously acting dirty."
Once a doctor has made a diagnosis - and an operation is in the pipeline - the transsexual can get official permission from his local government official to cross-dress in public.
"They look for a solution that will at least allow them to be attracted to the gender they are naturally attracted to - without feelings of shame, sin and wrong-doing - and move around in society without harassment. The price is often being disowned by your family," says Tanaz Eshaghian.
Ali Askar - now renamed Negar and aged 27 - said that after the sex change operation she was initially depressed.
But her family's reaction has taken its toll. Although they warned her she would be disowned, she thought that they would change their mind after the operation.
"They pray for me to die soon. If I'd known that my family would truly shun me like this, I would never have done it."
She now lives with other transsexuals who have had a sex change. She has had to work as a prostitute to make ends meet.
Rejection by her parents has affected her deeply: "When parents can kill the love for their own child inside themselves, I have killed love in my being. I will never fall in love".
"A boy will always just get married and leave his mum, but a girl stays, a girl is always yours and will never leave, and now I will never experience the sadness that occurs when a boy leaves.
The original film, Be Like Others directed by Tanaz Eshaghian had its premier this month at the Berlin Film Festival. You can see clips at the film's website
Shares in British drugs firm Phytopharm have slumped by as much as 22%, as investors feared attacks from animal-rights militants.
Canaccord Capital has quit as broker to the firm, after one of its bosses was the target of an incendiary device.
Activists want Phytopharm to cut links with Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a prominent target of their campaigns.
Research firm HLS moved its headquarters to the US in 2001 after a sometimes violent campaign against its staff and property in the UK.
We are concerned it might happen again and we will take as many precautions as we can within the law
Phytopharm's Cambridgeshire headquarters were broken into twice last year. The company said it was forced to take out an injunction against activists linked to campaigns against HLS.
"We are concerned it might happen again and we will take as many precautions as we can within the law," Phytopharm's chief financial officer Wang Chong told BBC News.
The company, which does not operate its own laboratories, said it outsourced all animal experimental work linked to its products.
Animal-rights website Bite Back said militants planted an incendiary device under the car of a Canaccord director on 19 May.
"Phytopharm get out of HLS or see your share price crash and your supporters' property go up in flames," a message on the website continued.
Mr Chong said staff were concerned at the firm's drop in share price, but added that morale at the company remained high.