preserve “public morality”, notably the Basij militia, reportedly harassed, arrested, detained and abused LGBTI individuals on the basis of these regulations.7 8 9 Although State recognition and support have given transgender individuals a certain level of legal legitimisation, it also has reinforced the societal stigma due to the pathologisation of transgender identities: that trans persons suffer from a medical condition which requires treatment. Additionally, medical assessment in the Islamic Republic of Iran conflates a variety of sexual and gender identities with transsexuality, resulting in those for whom surgery is neither appropriate nor necessary being ‘treated’ in line with the prevailing medical opinion: that any divergence from cisgendered heterosexuality can only be due to a person’s gender dysphoria and transsexual identity. Transgender individuals who do not fit the State’s recognition criteria are subject to discrimination and abuses. 10 11 The Iranian states’ behavior towards lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals has been hostile and Iranian authorities publicly criticize the country’s lesbian, gay and bisexual community. In 2013, Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary of Iran’s high council for human rights said that homosexuality was regarded as “an illness and malady” in the Islamic Republic of Iran.12 Hateful comments from Iranian officials have been regularly and recently reported, where they used terms such as “immoral”, “corrupt”, “animals”, “sick” or “Western” to qualify homosexual individuals.13 Such openly hateful behavior towards the lesbian, gay and bisexual community from government officials may impair LGBT persons’ access to employment, social services, health care and education as it creates a permissive environment for exclusion and societal stigmatization. There is no readily available information that might indicate the existence of state measures to address discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and non-legally recognised transgender individuals. The Iranian discriminatory legal framework and the Government’s openly hateful behavior towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex community from government officials facilitate the violations of LGBTI persons’ rights, including the right to education, as it creates a permissive environment for exclusion and societal stigmatisation. In 2017, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei criticised the UNESCO Education 2030’s initiative as a vehicle of Western influence in Iran and other prominent official figures accused it of promoting homosexuality or 7 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2014, http://6rang.org/english/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/PathologizingIdentities-Paralyzing-Bodies.pdf 8 Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR), 2018, https://irqr.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IQW-Report.pdf 9 OutRight International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightLesbianReport.pdf?_ga=2.78516692.1992181521.1595330838780871412.1595330838 10 Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf 11 Outright International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightTransReport.pdf 12 The Guardian, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2013/mar/14/iran-official-homosexuality-illness 13 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2017, http://6rang.org/english/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Official-HateSpeech-against-LGBT-People-in-Iran.pdf 2

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