GENDER OUTLAWS BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY: IRANIAN TRANSGENDER ASYLUM SEEKERS TRAPPED WITHIN HETERONORMATIVE (INTER)NATIONAL FRAMEWORKS By M.Ali Abdi Submitted to Central European University Department of Gender Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Critical Gender Studies Supervisor: Associate Professor Hadley Z. Renkin Second Reader: Professor Eszter Timar CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2011 Abstract While same-sex relationships are criminalized in Iran, sex-change operations are allowed and partially funded by Islamic Republic. Nevertheless, a number of Iranian transgender people leave the country to Turkey to seek asylum through UNHCR. The thesis aims at understanding Islamic Republic recognition of sex-change operations and UNHCR acceptance of transgender people as potential refugees, by looking through the dominant politics of gender and sexuality in Islamic Republic throughout the last two hundred years and on international level along the line of continuous mutual constitution and interaction between Iranian and western modernities. I argue that the discourse informing transsexuality in today Iran is a confluence of western scientific discourse on truth of sex, and the Classical Islamic discourse on true sex, which provides knowledge and regime of truth for IR’s heteronormalizing politics. Yet, I claim that the heteronormalizing and disciplining tendencies are not limited to IR’s politics of gender and sexuality, but is deeply embedded in the international asylum law, UNHCR immigration judges’ prejudices, and NGOs working on the ground. Invoking deep interviews I conducted in Turkey with Iranian transgender asylum seekers, I show that disciplining trends on national and international levels, which inform and are informed by each other, works at discriminating against those transgender people who do not fit within the dominant definition of discreet transgender citizens along the binary lines of male/female and man/woman. I draw on post- colonial theories, Butler’s discussion of performativity, Foucauldian understandings of power, CEU eTD Collection and theories of transgenderism and citizenship debates in different chapters. The recognition of intertwined modernities and the continuous friction between local and global processes within hierarchical power relations shape the broader framework of my thesis. i Acknowledgement I would like to express my warmest thanks to my supervisor Professor Hadley Renkin for his unbelievable patience, unforgettable emotional support, priceless comments, and valuable contributions throughout the study with his deep and broad knowledge, experience and kindness. I am also grateful to my second supervisor dear Professor Eszter Timar for her careful reviews and insightful feedbacks. I would like to dedicate the thesis to the thousands of the Iranian students who are either imprisoned back home or are deprived from continuing their education because of pursuing their academic rights and seeking democracy. I dedicate the thesis specifically to my friends, Bahareh Hedayat (sentenced to 9 years in prison), Ali Akbar Mohammad Zadeh (now in prison for more than four months), Kouhyar Goodarzi (deprived from continuing his education) Milad Asadi (sentenced to seven years in prison), Ali Malihi (sentenced to four years in prison), Majid Tavakkoli (sentenced to eight years in prison), Zia Nabavi (sentenced to ten years in prison), Mehdi Khodaei (sentenced to four years in prison) and more. I would also like to dedicate the words of this thesis to Haleh Sahabi, the Iranian Women’s Rights and Peace activist, who was killed on June 1st 2011 by Iranian security forces during the funeral of her father. I wish my tears, even now that I am writing these lines, would contribute to healing her pains. CEU eTD Collection ii Table of contents ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................................................... I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT................................................................................................................................... II TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................................................III INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................................1 METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................................................................6 TERMINOLOGY ...................................................................................................................................................7 CHAPTER 1- CULTURAL AMNESIA: THE POLITICS OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN IRAN SINCE THE QAJAR DYNASTY (1794 – PRESENT)................................................................................................... 10 POLITICS OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN “MODERN” IRAN (1794-PRESENT) ....................................................... 12 QAJAR ERA ...................................................................................................................................................... 12 FOUCAULT AND NAJMABADI’S DISCUSSIONS ON HISTORY OF SEXUALITY IN EUROPE AND IRAN .......................... 16 Foucault’s Discussion on History of Sexuality in Europe .............................................................................. 16 Najmabadi’s Discussion on History of Sexuality in Iran During 19th and Early 20th Century ......................... 19 PAHLAVI ERA: COMPULSORY HETEROSOCIALITY WITH LOVING-COMPANIONATE HETEROSEXUALITY ................. 21 The Cultural Amnesia: How and Why the Figure of Amrad(numa) was Forgotten?....................................... 24 POLITICS OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY DURING ISLAMIC REPUBLIC (1979-PRESENT) ........................................... 25 Foucault’s Discussion on Iranian Revolution: Political Sprituality ............................................................... 25 Islamic Modernity........................................................................................................................................ 26 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 2- COMPLICITY BEYOND TIME AND SPACE: THE RELIGIO-PSYCHO-MEDICALIZED DISCOURSE ON TRANSSEXUALITY............................................................................................................ 31 TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUALS AFTER ISLAMIC REPUBLIC: FROM PERVERTS TO PATIENTS...................................... 33 RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE ON TRUE SEX ................................................................................................................ 35 PSYCHO-MEDICAL DISCOURSE ON TRUTH OF SEX.............................................................................................. 38 ANALYSIS: RELIGIO-PSYCHO-MEDICAL DISCOURSE ON TRANSSEXUALITY ......................................................... 40 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER 3 – TRAVELLING FROM EVIL TO FREEDOM: DISCURSIVE REPRESENTATION OF IRANIAN LGBT ASYLUM SEEKERS ............................................................................................................ 50 CONCEPT OF REFUGEE WITHIN INTERNATIONAL POWER RELATIONS................................................................... 52 POST 9/11 RHETORIC: IRAN AS THE AXIS OF EVIL .............................................................................................. 53 REPRODUCTION OF THE EVIL IRAN/FREE WEST .................................................................................................. 55 Seeking Asylum: A Practice with Unintended Consequences......................................................................... 55 World Press Tendency.................................................................................................................................. 56 NGOs: Are they Doing Good?...................................................................................................................... 58 Analysis: Reduction, Neglect, Backlash ........................................................................................................ 65 CEU eTD Collection CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................... 67 CHAPTER 4 – “GENDER OUTLAWS” BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY: IRANIAN TRANSGENDER ASYLUM SEEKERS TRAPPED IN A PARADOX.......................................................................................... 69 CITIZENSHIP/IDENTITY POLITICS/INTERNATIONAL LGBT HUMAN RIGHTS DEBATES ........................................... 71 RECOGNITION OF ASYLUM SEEKERS CLAIM BASED ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY: A BRIEF BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................................. 81 iii IRANIAN LGBT ASYLUM SEEKERS IN TURKEY................................................................................................... 83 Process of Seeking Asylum..........................................................................................................................