I happened to catch the film Be Like Others on HBO the other day. It is a really good documentary film that won several prizes at film festivals.
From Wikipedia:
“Although homosexual relationships are illegal (punishable by death) in Iran, sex reassignment operations are permitted. In 1983, spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini passed a fatwa allowing sex-change operations as a cure for “diagnosed transsexuals”. Be Like Others shows the experiences of male and female patients at Dr. Bahram Mir-Jalali’s Mirdamad Surgical Centre, a sex-reassignment clinic in Tehran.”
It is a very powerful, and sad, story of several people who are followed over the course of a year or so in Iran prior to, and after, their sex changes.
If you have a chance, catch this film!