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Society & Culture

"I Had No Place": Actress Pooya Mohseni on Growing Up Trans in Iran and Fighting Prejudice in the US

September 5, 2022
Shaya Goldoust
5 min read
Pooya Mohseni came out to her family as a teenager, prompting their decision to emigrate to the US
Pooya Mohseni came out to her family as a teenager, prompting their decision to emigrate to the US
After years trying to make ends meet in other professions, she finally pursued her dream of being an actress and made a success of it
After years trying to make ends meet in other professions, she finally pursued her dream of being an actress and made a success of it
She experienced her fair share of discrimination in the US too, and was once dropped by an agency once they found out she was trans
She experienced her fair share of discrimination in the US too, and was once dropped by an agency once they found out she was trans

Every Monday on Instagram, Shaya Goldoust, a radio host, transgender woman and LGBT+ rights activist, holds a Persian-language conversation for IranWire with a member of the community about their life experiences, issues and concerns. Shaya’s guest this week was Pooya Mohseni, a trans woman who relocated from Iran to the United States. She told us about her difficult road to securing genuine respect and equality in the profession that she loves.

 

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In Iran and many other countries around the world, inbuilt prejudices inhibit LGBT+ citizens’ access to the same opportunities as their straight and gender-conforming peers. They are also exposed to violence and discrimination, often encouraged by the state itself: in Iran, for instance, homosexuality remains a capital crime.

Nevertheless, we see individuals in this society who won this unequal war and achieved their goals despite everything stood in their way. The actress, filmmaker and trans activist Pooya Mohseni is one of them. In order to obtain the life she deserved, though, first she had to leave her home country and relocate to the US, then fight a string of battles not of her own making.

 

How did you become interested in acting and get into the craft?

We [as Iranians] come from a culture where families don’t generally view this profession favorably. In our culture, building a career in theater or in cinema is neither lucrative nor socially prestigious and, for the past 40 years, it has not been a secure career either.

Families want their children to become doctors or engineers. From my adolescence, I wanted to attend the IRIB’s [Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting] training school, but my parents were staunchly against it. My mother was a teacher and my father an accountant.

We came to New York as an immigrant family and making a living was a priority. So I started out as a fabric designer, but my heart wasn’t into it. Then I went into massage therapy; I was a wartime child and had bitter memories of that time, and was looking for something that would calm my own and also others’ bodies and souls. I did that for a while.

Then, I started thinking: I’d been a trans woman in Iran and now I’d moved to America, so what did I really want to do with my life now? Around 13 years ago, I decided to take the first step and enter the world of the arts. I began with singing, and later when I got into acting, I found that was what I’d always wanted.

 

Had you revealed your identity to your family before you left Iran?

I was 18 when we left. At the time the internet and the social media didn’t exist, and people had no access to correct information. But my mother later told me that as a child, they’d repeatedly taken me to the psychologist because I behaved differently to my brother, who is seven or eight years older than me.

My mother was a teacher and came into contact with many children, so she noticed these discrepancies but did not know the reason for them. When I was six or seven years old I noticed, too, and because of people’s reactions, I tried to hide them. Many think that LGBT+ people have no idea what we really are and what we really want to do. Of course, we do, but we are bewildered and hide because of social pressures.

When I reached puberty the issues became overwhelming. I felt I had no place in society and was different to everybody else. I became deeply depressed and I couldn’t even step outside our house. not even step outside my home. Personal and family matters made it very severe, and I repeatedly attempted suicide.

Finally, with a help of a knowledgeable acquaintance I was able to reveal my true self to my family. This person helped me and my family to come to terms with it. I was 16 or 17 and, at the time, emigration was the only way they could find to help me.

 

Despite all this life went on, you got into the profession you loved, and today you’re a success. As an Iranian transgender woman, did you encounter discrimination and obstacles to your professional career in America?

As a woman I’d learned to fight for anything I wanted. I’d witnessed my mother and my grandmother have to tenaciously fight as women. Little by little, a few learned people and psychologists, especially in America, helped me to accept myself, to stop feeling ashamed of what I was, and go on. But even in America, I encountered discrimination.

Around 20 years ago I started with small parts in the movie industry. At the time nobody was interested in helping me, not even in America. As an Iranian woman and, worse, as a trans Iranian woman, I had no place. I was working with an agency and once, someone in a series I was acting in found out I was trans. The agency dropped me straight away.

Once, I once lost hope and quit acting for several years. I started again 12 or 13 years ago. In the beginning I concealed my identity, both for my safety and job security. I tried very hard not to attract attention. At that time, the American society was not like it is today. There might have been laws to protect us, but people didn’t follow them, and I wasn’t keen to try to defend myself based on the law.

It was around seven years ago that I decided I had to live my own life. I’d survived the [Iran-Iraq] war, the social environment of the time, school, emigration, life in a new country and formidable challenges. I’d left all these behind me, and now I had to live.

It is time for everybody to know who I am and what I’ve been through. The younger generation of the LGTB+ community should know that generations before them had to travel even more difficult roads, and the families must also learn that they can be a great support to their children. My advice to all members of the LGBT+ community is this: Always love yourselves, accept yourselves, and be proud of yourselves.

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