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