Maryam Khatoon Molkara

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Molkara's grave

Maryam Khatoon Molkara ( Persian مریم خاتون ملک‌آرا Mariam Chatun Molk ara ; born in 1950 as Fereydoon Molkara in Abkenar ; died March 25, 2012 in Tehran ) was an activist for the rights of transsexuals in Iran . Assigned to the male sex at birth, she was later largely responsible for ensuring that a fatwa was issued thatlegalizedgender reassignment operations .

As early as 1975, Molkara wrote letters to Ayatollah Khomeini , who was then in exile in Iraq, to ​​ask about religious support relating to her trans identity. In 1978 she traveled to Paris, where Khomeini lived, to raise awareness of trans rights with him. After the Islamic Revolution , she was fired from her job on Iranian television, forcibly injected with male hormones, and admitted to a mental health facility. She was dismissed because of good contacts with religious scholars, including Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani .

Molkara then worked hard to have the opportunity to get a sex reassignment operation in Iran. She confronted Khomeini at his property in northern Tehran: wearing a suit and a Koran in hand, Khomeini's security guards stopped her and beat her until Khomeini's brother Hassan Pasandide intervened. She was then given the opportunity to speak to Khomeini and convinced him with her story about legalizing gender reassignment surgery. He issued a fatwa for it in 1986. In the following years, Molkara campaigned to establish appropriate medical interventions in Iranian hospitals. At the same time, she tried to convince other transsexuals of the possibility of gender reassignment surgery. She herself completed the operation in Thailand in 1997 because she was dissatisfied with the quality of the operation in Iranian hospitals.

In 2007 she founded and headed the Iranian Society for the Support of Individuals with Gender Identity Disorders (انجمن حمایت از بیماران مبتلا به اختلالات هویت جنسی ایران), the first officially registered organization for transgender rights in Iran.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Angus McDowall: The Ayatollah and the transsexual. In: The Independent . November 25, 2004, accessed on April 25, 2011 : "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."
  2. ^ A b c Robert Tait: A fatwa for transsexuals. In: Salon.com. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011 ; accessed on April 25, 2011 : "One woman's courage in appealing to the late Ayatollah Khomeini has made Tehran the unlikely sex change capital of the world."
  3. ↑ Nazila Fathi: As repression lifts, More Iranians Change Their Sex. In: The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2004 .
  4. ^ Robert Tait: A Fatwa for Freedom. In: The Guardian. July 27, 2005, accessed May 12, 2010 .
  5. ↑ a b c Human Rights Report: Being Transgender in Iran. Retrieved August 6, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Molkara, Maryam Khatoon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fereydoon Molkara (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian trans activist
DATE OF BIRTH 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Abkenar
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 2012
Place of death Tehran