Sex-change Iranian actor returns to screens
Guardian UK
By Robert Tait
19 March, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/19/iranian-actor-sex-change (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/19/iranian-actor-sex-change)
She earned her acting credentials playing female characters in a host of hit films and television dramas. Now one of Iran's best-known screen actors has ditched her previous persona to embark on a new career playing male roles.
But Saman – formerly Farzaneh – Arastu's gender transformation has little to do with dramatic talents. Instead she has turned into a he by becoming the first known Iranian actor to undergo a sex change operation.