The Birthday

While homosexuality is considered a major taboo in Iran, the Koran makes no specific mention of transsexuality and after a decree was passed down by the Ayatollah Khomeni permitting sexual reassignment surgery for transsexuals, the nation has shown a tolerance for transgendered individuals. Filmmakers Negin Kianfar and Daisy Mohr offer filmed portraits of three Iranian transsexuals and how they live their lives. Mahtab is a man in the outside world, but lives as a woman at home, which angers his father and confuses his mother, though they’ve come to accept his decision to have a sex change. Saye, meanwhile, is a woman trapped in a man’s body who has not been as lucky as Mahtab – after repeated violence from her father, she was banished from the family home, and now shares an apartment with her lover, Afshin. Afshin is also a transsexual, but since becoming a man, he insists Saye stay home and observe the cultural restrictions that apply to women in a fundamentalist Muslim society.