Journal of Iranian Social Studies

Abstract In Iran, like other countries, there are a small number of people who are not satisfied with their sex, and do attempt to change it. Although the Iranian legal system has legitimized sex rearrangement conditionally, transsexual people encounter many limitations during the process of sex change and even later in their personal and social life. Thus, such situation decreases their stock of social capital and the level of life quality. This paper is based on Lin’s approach that considers the quality of life as a kind social capital return. Firstly, the amount of transsexuals’ social capital and their quality of life is described. Then, the relation between social capital and quality of life is analyzed in accordance with Lin’s approach. The data was gathered via survey method and interviewing 168 persons who were under supervision of Welfare centers across the country. The results indicate that the mean figures for social capital and quality of life among respondents are lower than the expected statistical mean. Therefore, there is a significant and direct relationship between these two variables. Any decrease in transsexuals’ social capital leads to weakness of their social capital return especially in the aspect of expression.