Not so much that trans people are “legit” in Iran but much more that homosexuals are completely proscribed, as in, it is a literal death sentence to be gay. If the only options are to be killed or forced to go undergo physical conversion then it is little wonder that deeply and openly homophobic Iran has been so high up the lists in terms of operations performed.
Just in case anyone was thinking that good old Iran were some sort of progressive beacon of light.
FYI al-Azhar is in Cairo, Egypt. I did specify that it’s Sunni.
OK, thanks for the clarification. My point about about Iran still stands.
I don’t think that is quite the case. Pretty sure the only such surgery available in SA is for intersex people. I wouldn’t be surprised though to see them take the same homosexual conversion approach as Iran.
It’s true that homophobia is extremely bad and oppressive in Saudi and Iran, it’s to be condemned by all LGBTQ peoples in solidarity. Since the topic of the thread is trans people, that was a sidebar. Some trans people are gay, some are hetero, some are bi, some are ace… Sexuality varies freely with respect to gender identity.
My tedious cishet 2 cents
There is a whole bunch of reasons for someone to not want to be in the cis binary dichotomy
The existence of this want throughout cultures and times implies some of the reasons are biological.
The expression of these wants is constrained by the culture.
eg Iran ‘forces’ gay men to be trans women.
It would be naive to think The West have got it all right and are perfectly giving all not cis/binary the correct paths to their best chance of happiness.
There is no absolute definition of man or woman amd its a fools errand to try to find such.