KARAJ, IRAN - July 9, 2010: Maryam Khatoon Molkara photographed at her home in Karaj city outside Tehran. Maryam Khatoon Molkara formerely a male, known as Fereydoon Molkara, is a transsexual who wrote to Ayatollah Khomeini in Iraq during the reign of the Shah of Iran asking for his religious decree in regard to her sexuality. In the mid 1980's after the Islamic Revolution, she made it to Ayatollah's residence and got a ruling from him to be able to change her sex from a man into a woman and later, after a surgery in Thailand she became the first legitimate transsexual in Iran. Today she runs a center in Tehran which aims to help transsexuals in Iran and the region. (Photo by Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
