Social Problems of Iran

Understanding the Narratives of Individuals Seeking sexual Transition Regarding Their Sexual Identity Change

Authors

Bahman Moradi Soleimanabad 1
Sattar Parvin 2
Mohammad Taqi Karami Ghahi 3

1 PhD Candidate in Social Work Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Social Work Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

3 Professor, Department of Women’s Studies Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.61882/jspi.16.3.241
Abstract
This study seeks to understand the narratives of individuals seeking sexual transition regarding their change of sexual identity. The dominant discourse surrounding the issue of gender identity for these individuals has largely been shaped within a medicalized, pathologizing, and individualized framework—a discourse that reduces this experience to the level of psychological disorders and biological abnormalities through personalization. In contrast to this reductive approach, the narrative approach, as one of the emerging critical perspectives in social work interventions, provides an opportunity to reinterpret the experience of gender identity formation within social, cultural, and intersubjective contexts. In this study, the researcher employs a qualitative "thematic analysis" method, using semi-structured interviews with purposive and snowball sampling, to explore the narratives shared by transgender individuals about their process of sexual identity transition. The findings reveal how these individuals distance themselves from religious and theological narratives and gradually become redefined within medical and psychological discourses. They transition from a sinful identity to a sick one and then to deviant. Ultimately, relying on quasi-intellectual interpretations and engaging with dominant social discourses, participants attempt to frame their gender transition as a rational, legitimate, and acceptable narrative while rejecting restrictive counter-narratives.

1. Introdoction

In today's world, the issue of sexual identity has emerged as one of the most pressing and widely debated subjects. Discussions surrounding sexual identity change are predominantly framed within biomedical and individual-centered discourses. These dominant perspectives, rooted in the paradigms of biomedicine, psychiatry, and even psychology, conceptualize sexual identity and its alteration primarily through pathological and diagnostic lenses. As such, the issue is often treated as a personal disorder or abnormality to be assessed, diagnosed, and corrected through specialized intervention, thereby detaching it from the broader social and cultural structures that shape it. This research aims to move beyond such reductionist, individual-focused frameworks and instead situates sexual identity within a discursive field shaped by cultural and societal dynamics.

The study adopts a critical stance toward pathologizing narratives and focuses on the interpretive power of discourse and narrative in shaping sexual identity. Drawing on narrative therapy—an approach influenced by post-structuralist thought—this research highlights the capacity of social work to challenge dominant norms and open up new interpretive horizons. Narrative therapy offers a theoretical and practical toolset that enables social workers to explore identity construction not as an internal essence, but as a product of discursive relations, social regulation, and power.

This study specifically focuses on individuals seeking sexual identity change as a key target group in social work, recognizing their unique experiences with discrimination and social prejudice. Like other minorities, they face structural inequalities in housing, employment, and healthcare, while also confronting various social challenges. The research acknowledges that prevailing understandings of sexual identity change remain confined within individual psychological and biomedical perspectives, neglecting crucial social dimensions. By examining how personal narratives interact with dominant medical, psychological, and religious discourses in Iran, this study seeks to reveal the complex social nature of sexual identity transformation. It particularly investigates how individuals navigate between different frameworks while working to reconstruct their identities within competing narrative systems.

Through this lens, the research poses two fundamental questions: What kinds of narratives do individuals seeking sexual identity change construct about themselves and their lives? Which narratives direct or influence their movement toward sexual identity transformation?

2. Methodology

This qualitative study employed thematic analysis to explore the identity transformation experiences of individuals seeking sexual transition. Using purposive and snowball sampling, eleven participants with diverse backgrounds (age, assigned sex, education) were selected to ensure rich, varied perspectives. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, allowing participants to freely articulate their experiences while maintaining focus on core research questions. Interviews were administered with flexibility, conducted either face-to-face in environments designed to promote participant comfort and openness. Each session lasted approximately 55 minutes on average. Thematic analysis followed an inductive approach to identify patterns in participants’ accounts, emphasizing depth over frequency. Rigor was ensured through iterative coding, peer debriefing, and member checks, adhering to trustworthiness criteria (credibility, dependability, confirmability, transferability). Ethical considerations included informed consent, confidentiality (using anonymized codes), and minimizing participant distress. Sampling continued until theoretical saturation, with findings organized into key themes reflecting participants’ lived realities. The analysis avoided quantitative frameworks, instead prioritizing contextualized interpretations of sexual identity development. By centering participants’ voices, this methodology captured nuanced, socially embedded understandings of sexual transition beyond biomedical or individualistic paradigms

3. Findings

Aligned with its overarching perspective, this study sought to examine how individuals perceive their sexual identity within broader cultural and social frameworks. To this end, it traced participants’ narratives of sexual identity transition from childhood to adulthood, paralleling their developmental stages.

Initially, based on their linear recollections of identity formation, many reported internalizing a distinct sexual identity through childhood role-playing activities that contradicted their assigned sex. Essentialist categorizations of toys as "feminine" or "masculine," along with gendered color associations, served as tools to validate their identity. As they grew older, emerging same-sex desires often evoked guilt and self-stigmatization, framing them as "unforgivable sinners."

Upon joining peer groups and receiving social support, the label shifted from "sinful" to "in need of treatment and care." With the dominance of medical and psychiatric discourses and their growing presence in social domains, the religious narrative gradually diminishes and aligns with the medical-psychiatric discourse. This transformation of the religious narrative into a clinical one is influenced by the hegemony of these discourses. However, support from institutions—families, friends, governmental bodies, NGOs, social workers, and society at large—was often inconsistent or insufficient. Families, fearing "interfering with God’s will" or social stigma, sometimes obstructed self-actualization, while mothers played dual roles as both facilitators and barriers, inadvertently reinforcing self-isolation as a coping mechanism. Though social workers indirectly aided identity affirmation, they largely operated within the confines of medical and psychiatric discourses. The dominance of these discourses pushed individuals to privatize religious practices and conform to idealized identities. Meanwhile, media and medical narratives acted as disciplinary forces, producing "deviant" identities and perpetuating stigma. Consequently, influenced by the medicalized notion of "treatability," many pursued sexual transition. Post-transition, participants reported greater societal belonging and self-contentment, yet the struggle to legitimize their identity and combat social marginalization persisted.

4. Conclusion

The findings of this study reveal a dynamic, multilayered, and historically situated process in which individuals reconstruct their sexual identity within dominant cultural, religious, and scientific discourses. Utilizing Foucauldian concepts such as power/knowledge and subjectivation, it becomes apparent that identity is neither innate nor a priori, but rather a socially constructed phenomenon shaped through interactions with discursive regimes, professional institutions, and hegemonic narratives.

In early stages, individuals experience instability and ambiguity in their sexual identity, rooted in the dissonance between their inner lifeworld and prescribed social gender roles. This duality is typically reinforced through gendered play and social interactions during childhood. As adolescence approaches and sexual desires emerge, religious discourses frame these experiences within concepts of sin, deviance, and shame, pushing individuals toward suppression or denial.

However, exposure to alternative discourses such as psychiatric and medical frameworks facilitates a transition from a moralizing paradigm ("sinner") to a pathologizing one ("patient"). While this transition provides opportunities for legitimization, individuals continue to face diagnostic classifications and clinical interventions that reinforce binary norms. The medical model, while bringing social legitimacy, simultaneously introduces new regulatory mechanisms that align with Foucault's analysis of modern power as productive, regulatory, and subject-forming.

This study, consistent with the findings of Piper and Mannino (2008) and Hamman (2014), demonstrates how clinical narratives dominate sexual identity construction and reduce gender diversity to diagnosable and treatable conditions. For social workers, these findings emphasize the necessity of moving beyond biomedical frameworks. Adopting a critical and constructivist perspective can assist social workers in empowering clients to shape their identity while simultaneously challenging institutional pathologization.

In this journey, redefining the role of social work as a profession capable of challenging dominant discourses becomes essential. Social workers can help clients create alternative identity narratives by providing safe spaces for personal storytelling. This approach not only enables individuals to free themselves from pathologizing labels but also paves the way for changes in social attitudes and institutional policies.

Keywords

Social work
Narrative theory
Sexual identity change
Medical discourse
Psychological discourse
Bradford Nova J. Bradford, G. Nicole Rider, Jory M. Catapla, Quinlyn J. Morrow, Dianne R. Berg, Katherinne G. Spencer & Jenifer K. McGuire (2018): Creating gender: thematic analysis of genderqueer narratives, International Journal Of Transgenderism, DOI:10.1018/15532739.2018.1474516, G. Nicole Rider, Jory M. Catapla, Quinlyn J. Morrow, Dianne R. Berg, Katherinne G. Spencer & Jenifer K. McGuire (2018): Creating gender: thematic analysis of genderqueer narratives, International Journal Of Transgenderism, DOI:10.1018/15532739.2018.1474516.
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  • Receive Date 08 June 2026
  • Publish Date 08 June 2026