by Leah Carter

When Arya came out as transgender, his family immediately rejected the idea. "They did not accept that I was trans," says Arya, who wishes to remain anonymous. "They told me, 'Because you were born as a girl, you need to live as a girl.'"

Arya, 38, who identifies as a gender non-binary person, came out to his family in Tehran, Iran's capital, when he was 25, and spent two years seeking approval for a sex change operation. Despite repressive anti-LGBT laws, gender reassignment surgery remains legal in Iran. However, the path to getting legal approval to transition is fraught with humiliating procedures, including virginity tests, court trials, extensive questioning and mandatory counseling.

Even after people get through the surgery and are legally able to change their sex on their identity cards, many are left without families, homes and work, while others face lasting physical damage from the procedure itself.

"Your rights will be violated before, during and after the surgery," says Shadi Amin, the director of 6rang, an organization that helps LGBT people in Iran. Approval often takes around one to two years, but can take much longer than that in some cases.

"When the argument went on and on, they brought me to the psychologist, which was the first step," says Arya. Early on in the process, Arya says he was handed a questionnaire with a long list of questions, including: "Imagine that you are in a room and inside that room there is a fire starting, and you need to save your mom or a bunch of cats, which one do you choose?" and "Would you describe yourself as a circle, a triangle or a square?" Based on these questions, he says, psychologists began to assess whether Arya was truly transgender or whether it was "just a phase."

Others, says Amin, are subjected to virginity tests, which are, "for a lot of them, a painful procedure." Read more via DW