Living as a transgender person in Iran Once the transition is made, many are forced to break ties with their families, friends, and all of the people who they knew before. Many move to other cities to start new lives, and are often faced with homelessness and forced into sex work to support themselves. Additionally, adopting the norms of their legal gender can be another major adjustment in Iran, where men and women are separated in almost every aspect of life, including public transportation and classrooms. "You should imagine that [after] you change your sex, you go to another society which is totally foreign for you, totally new for you, and you have to deal with that," says Amin. "You have lived as a woman all of your life, and now you are a man and you have to do all the things that a man did before." "Even after the surgery, you must act as if you are not transgender," says Amin. For Arya, going through the surgery meant he would have to let go of his family, too. His parents felt that his transition would be shameful if other relatives knew. "One of the main things that my family told me, is that if I went through the surgery, 'We are going to say that something happened to you,'" says Arya. "You cannot have any relationship with anyone from your past life." He thought, "So I'm going to go through my future without any support, without any love, without the people that I knew before." This process of starting a new life also makes it difficult to maintain data on what happens to people once they transition. "We don't have any statistics about how they feel after the operation because most people will be lost in other cities," says Amin. "They don't want to show their history. They don't want anything to do with the people they had a connection with before."
A new beginning Arya left Iran three years ago. He first moved to Portugal and now lives in Berlin. He started his social transition, or the process of making others aware of his gender identity, in September of last year, and his medical transition in March. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, he has had to put the medical portion of his transition on hold for the time being. In Europe, he says he has found a new life and a sense of freedom that he didn't have in Iran. "I am free to be myself. I am free to tell other people how I feel. I am free to do something for my friends who are in the same situation inside the country," he said. "It's like living a dream."
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