Iranian film shines spotlight on taboo subject of transsexuals
Facing Mirrors brings transsexuality to the big screen for the first time, even though Khomeini fatwa legalised it in 1987
Saeed Kamali Dehghan
guardian.co.uk, Friday 2 November 2012 12.47 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/02/iranian-film-taboo-subject-transsexuals (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/02/iranian-film-taboo-subject-transsexuals)
Adineh and Rana are women from very different sides of the track. Wealthy, modern and rebellious, Adineh has fled the family home, harbouring a secret desire to become a man. Rana, from a conservative religious background, gives her a lift in the taxi she has been forced to drive since her husband was sent to jail.
The burgeoning relationship between the two forms the heart of Facing Mirrors, a film that hit cinemas in Tehran this week and brought the taboo subject of transsexuality to the big screen for the first time.
One of the many astonishing paradoxes about life in the Islamic republic is that transsexuality has been legal since a fatwa was issued in 1987 by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Indeed, Iran permits more sex-change operations than any other country, except Thailand, and has long subsidised such surgeries. But, though transsexuals may have the support of the government, they remains highly controversial figures among the public.