restricts the enjoyment of human rights for the LGBT community, including the right to work, to social security, to health and education. 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.17 Negative 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.18 Such openly hostile behaviour towards the lesbian, gay and bisexual community from government officials may further impair LGBT persons’ access to employment, social services, health care and education as it creates a permissive environment for the exclusion and societal stigmatization against LGBT individuals in Iran. 19 20 21 22 23 24 In 1986, then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa (a ruling or a religious decree on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority) permitting the acceptance of sex reassignment surgery for transgender people.25 Although State 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. 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. Transgender individuals who do not wish, cannot or have not been medically allowed to go through sex reassignment surgery are not eligible to obtain legal recognition corresponding to their gender identity. 26 As a consequence, they face barriers to access higher education, employment and housing as they cannot obtain relevant legal permits without denying their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.27 28 Moreover, they are not eligible for social services and health assistance provided by the State for 17 The Guardian, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2013/mar/14/iran-official-homosexuality-illness Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2017, http://6rang.org/english/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Official-HateSpeech-against-LGBT-People-in-Iran.pdf 19 Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/denied-identity-human-rights-abuses-against-irans-lgbtcommunity/#2 20 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2015, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19808_E.pdf 21 OutRight International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightLesbianReport.pdf?_ga=2.78516692.1992181521.1595330838780871412.1595330838 22 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2015, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19808_E.pdf 23 Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4&Lang=En 24 Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf 25 Outright International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightTransReport.pdf 26 Outright International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightTransReport.pdf 27 OutRight International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightTransReport.pdf 28 Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR), 2018, https://irqr.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IQW-Report.pdf 18 3