In general, it’s not that Iran recognizes “trans people”. There is no (officially allowed) trans identity. Medical and surgical transition is allowed as a way to “smooth a flaw” and assimilate into cishet-normative society. It is often applied as a way of state-sponsored conversion therapy: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/world/middleeast/iran-transgender-surgery.html
I’m sorry what exactly has changed since then, on a systemic level?
Yeah the US trying to pinkwash their war efforts has certainly made the situation for LGBTQ people more difficult, but that’s not a phenomenon unique to Iran. It’s the same in Russia, large parts of Africa, West asia and I think latin america as well. If the nation hostile to you (like e.g. bombing schools while they’re in session) is also loudly proclaiming they want more gay rights, the knee-jerk reaction is that this must be a hostile act aimed at dismantling your society as well. That’s one of the ways how capitalists divide society into different identities and pit them against eachother.
Your source is a decade old. The situation has deteriorated in practice after the 2022 protests, with the regime seeing trans people as connecting with the broader Western lgbtq+ movement and so “importing harmful ideas”. Source from last year: https://uprdoc.ohchr.org/uprweb/downloadfile.aspx?filename=13540&file=EnglishTranslation
In general, it’s not that Iran recognizes “trans people”. There is no (officially allowed) trans identity. Medical and surgical transition is allowed as a way to “smooth a flaw” and assimilate into cishet-normative society. It is often applied as a way of state-sponsored conversion therapy: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/world/middleeast/iran-transgender-surgery.html
I’m sorry what exactly has changed since then, on a systemic level?
Yeah the US trying to pinkwash their war efforts has certainly made the situation for LGBTQ people more difficult, but that’s not a phenomenon unique to Iran. It’s the same in Russia, large parts of Africa, West asia and I think latin america as well. If the nation hostile to you (like e.g. bombing schools while they’re in session) is also loudly proclaiming they want more gay rights, the knee-jerk reaction is that this must be a hostile act aimed at dismantling your society as well. That’s one of the ways how capitalists divide society into different identities and pit them against eachother.