Be Like Others: Rather Than Accept Homosexuality, Iran Encourages Gender Reassignment Surgery

TheWIP.net – by Jessica Mosby

Last year Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an audience at Columbia University, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals, like in your country.” His characteristically outrageous comment was met with laughter and boos; discrimination is no laughing matter in a country where homosexuality is punishable by death.

But after seeing the documentary film Be Like Others Ahmadinejad’s statement may be technically true. The 76 minute documentary by Iranian-American filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian, whose previous film Love Iranian-American Style documented her Iranian family’s involvement in her love life, profiles Iran’s leading gender reassignment doctor Dr. Bahram Mehrjalali (also spelled as Dr. Bahram Mir Jalai) and his patients.