Iranian transgenders are not secure in Iran

forwarded from our comrade Billy.

Iranian  transsexuals in fact experience humiliation, assault and abuse, if not  outright death - and not just by government agents, but also by neighbours,  family members, and those considered friends.  We have received reports  very recently from our contacts in Iran exemplifying the torment endured by  transgendered persons.  On Saturday October 10, members of Basiji forces  fired a gun at Sahar, an Iranian transgender, in the Abbasabad Street of  Tehran.  Sahar was hit in the shoulder and was taken to hospital by her  friends.  Once she is out of hospital, however, her safety is not  assured.

According to another report, on Wednesday October 14, Iranian  transgender Mahsa was knifed by two motorcyclists at an intersection in  Tehran.  Her lung injured, Mahsa was taken to hospital by a friend.   So far no one knows who attacked her. We asked one of our representatives in  Tehran to see Mahsa at hospital, but she is not allowed to accept visitors  now. Our representative did talk to her by phone and reported that she may be  well enough for release from hospital in the near term.  Like  their gay and lesbian friends, transgenders are always in danger of being  beaten and arrested by Basiji forces, which are loosely organized volunteer  militias supported by local clerics.  Basiji forces are not required to  show their identification, and cannot be held accountable for their actions.  Transgendered people are also the targets of special government police forces.  Even when these police forces do not have specific orders to arrest  transgendered people, they can easily fake a reason for arrest, take them into  custody, and form a criminal file on them.

Once this criminal file is  created, the accused can be taken to Mafased (a government organization  responsible for dealing with moral “corruption”), imprisoning him/her for days  and subjecting him/her to physical and psychological torture. The  incarceration and abuse can be extended simply by having him/her sent to the  judicial system for trial.  At that point, the judge arbitrarily decides  whether to set the person free or not. This court process is by itself a  horrifying and tormenting process, with the accused transgendered persons  forced to endure the judges’ and officers’ often sexist, brutal and  demoralizing words and deeds.

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Arsham Parsi
Executive  Director
Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees  - IRQR
www . irqr .  net
info @ irqr . net
(001) 416-548-4171
414-477 Sherbourne St.
Toronto, On - M4X 1K5