tagged w/ Be Like Others
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Premiering at Sundance in Park City, Utah, earlier this year, filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian's documentary "Be Like Others" explores how some young men in Iran choose to have gender reassignment surgery -- permissable for "diagnosed transsexuals", as Ayatollah Khomeini announced over 20 years ago passing a law to support the medical procedure. One man in the film sees the option to allow him to pursue "a decent life." The alternative, however, comes with a cultural price to pay because men sexually attracted to men is not only taboo in Iran; homosexuality is punishable by death. "Be Like Others" reveals how several men make the transition through gender reassignment surgery, and their new lives as women. Dr Barhram Mir-Jalali, a Paris-trained physician who specializes in the procedure, estimates he has performed about 450 gender reassignment surgeries in the past 12 years ("Iran's 'diagnosed transsexuals' by Vanessa Barford, BBC News, 25 Feb 2008).Premiering at Sundance in Park City, Utah, earlier this year, filmmaker Tanaz... more
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