Trans Addicts in Uncertainty; Tehran Municipality Says They Will Provide Shelter

Trans individuals among visible drug addicts and the homeless face different challenges compared to other addicts, prompting the Tehran Municipality to announce that if the Welfare Organization and the Ministry of Health do not take action, the municipality will consider 'a space for trans individuals.' The Fars News Agency reported on the plight of trans individuals caught in addiction, noting that while the organization of visible addicts has been carried out in centers called 'Yavarsher,' 'the problem for trans individuals remains unresolved.' This security-affiliated news agency quoted a trans addict who has been rejected by their family: 'I spend these cold nights in parks, under bridges, or in the homes of some lecherous men.' This individual emphasized that 'I have never been able to go to the shelter for visible addicts because of my trans identity.' According to the report, despite the law assigning the responsibility of supporting these individuals to the Welfare Organization, no agency accepts visible trans addicts or those with gender identity disorders, and the Ministry of Health announced in 2017 that organizing these individuals 'is not part of our current programs.' Fars News also revealed that previously, in addition to trans individuals, addicts with open wounds or those suffering from AIDS and hepatitis, as well as female addicts, were not accepted and returned to the streets. Additionally, in the fall of 2021, Fars organized a campaign claiming 'support for trans individuals' in Iran, which included demands for establishing a center providing medical and therapeutic services with full insurance coverage, cultural education in society, family counseling workshops, talent identification, empowerment, job creation, and military exemption for the trans community. Experts believe that security agencies, with media support, are trying to create assurance among trans individuals to manage and gradually separate them from society through identification and registration. In recent years, with the efforts of LGBTQ activists worldwide, some discriminatory laws against homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals have changed, but relationships between same-sex individuals remain criminalized in at least 69 countries, including Iran, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Syria. Although the trans community enjoys equal rights in many countries and is accepted as citizens, in some Islamic countries, including Iran, they are sometimes ostracized for revealing their identity and are forced to undergo gender reassignment and revalidation to achieve relatively equal rights with others. Iran is one of the few countries where homosexuals face the death penalty, and according to Islamic Penal Code, the punishment for sexual relations between men, referred to as 'Lavat' in legal terms, is execution.