BE LIKE OTHERS

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country with strict social mores and traditional values, homosexuality is forbidden, but sex change operations are legal. Over twenty years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious edict) making sex change permissible for «diagnosed transsexuals». Be Like Others tells the story of several twenty-something men who are grappling to find their true selves in a setting that does not allow gender non-conformity. Highly feminine and attracted to members of the same sex, yet forced to live in secret for fear of retribution, they adopt an identity legally allowed to them. In pursuit of what one man calls simply «a decent life», they pursue a drastic goal: gender reassignment surgery.