recognition and support have given transgender individuals a certain level of legal legitimization, 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. 37 38 Further, among these individuals, only those who are officially diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder and who obtained a permit to undergo sex reassignment surgery can have their gender legally recognized by the government. Others cannot benefit from the State Welfare’s services including sex change procedures or counselling and as a result cannot receive a state-issued identity card which legally affirms their gender.39 As a result, individuals of varying sexual and gender identities who cannot or will not pursue medical transition are not protected from abuses, including arrest, detention and prosecution.40 Besides the criminalization of same-sex conduct, a number of other legal provisions directly impact on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals, in particularly Iranian laws related to public decency. For instance, Article 639 of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code criminalizes the facilitation or encouragement of “people to immorality or prostitution.”41 Article 6 of the Press Law (1986) prohibits the dissemination of material “which violates public chastity” including “forbidden practices”42 such as same sex relations. Similarly, Article 14 of Law on Computer Crimes criminalizes the distribution of “immoral content.”43 Governmentalmandated organizations set up to preserve “public morality,” notably the Basij militia, reportedly harassed, arrested, detained and abused LGBT individuals on the basis of the aforementioned regulations.44 45 46 Similarly, law enforcement forces have been reportedly arresting and detaining transgender individuals for appearing cross-dressed in public, an act considered haram (forbidden under Islamic law) until a ‘disorder’ could be medically and legally established.47 Additionally, Article 638 of the 2013 Penal Code provides that all women must appear in public 37 Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf Outright International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightTransReport.pdf 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid. 41 Islamic Penal Code (2013), Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/islamic-penal-code-of-the-islamicrepublic-of-iran-book-five/ 42 International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), 2019, https://ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2019.pdf 43 Ibid. 44 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2014, http://6rang.org/english/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/PathologizingIdentities-Paralyzing-Bodies.pdf 45 Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR), 2018, https://irqr.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IQW-Report.pdf 46 OutRight International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightLesbianReport.pdf?_ga=2.78516692.1992181521.1595330838780871412.1595330838 47 Outright International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightTransReport.pdf 38 6