From the 1950s to the 1970s, Casablanca became an unexpected global center for gender reassignment surgery, led by pioneering French gynecologist Dr. Georges Burou. His innovative technique and discreet clinic attracted thousands, including prominent European entertainers. Few might imagine that Casablanca, Morocco, once stood at the forefront of gender reassignment surgery. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Clinic Le Parc, located near what is now the Parc de la Ligue Arabe, attracted hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals seeking to transition from male to female. At the center of this medical revolution was French gynecologist Georges Burou, widely credited as a pioneer in modern gender reassignment surgery for trans women. Trained in Algiers and initially practicing there, Dr. Burou eventually moved to Morocco, where by 1974 he had performed around 700 surgeries, according to a Time magazine report titled Prisoners of Sex. This number is believed to have later grown to approximately 8,000 operations. «I don't change men into women. I transform male genitals into genitals that have a female aspect. All the rest is in the patient's mind», Dr. Burou told Time. Many of his patients, he insisted, had already been living as women long before they arrived in Casablanca to take what he called «the last, irrevocable step». Dr. Burou's signature procedure, medically known as anteriorly pedicled penile skin flap inversion vaginoplasty, allowed for the creation of a neovagina in a single surgical stage using penile and scrotal skin. This innovative method became a foundational technique for male-to-female surgeries and is still influential in the field today. A medical celebrity Beyond his medical breakthrough, Burou's Casablanca clinic gained significant attention due to its celebrity patients, many of whom were well-known figures in the European entertainment world. He particularly gained public recognition in 1956 when Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy, a Parisian singer known as Coccinelle and a performer at the Le Carrousel nightclub, sought him out for gender reassignment surgery. Later, another performer from Le Carrousel decided to travel to Morocco for the same procedure: British model April Ashley, who in 1960 made the journey to Casablanca. She became Burou's ninth patient and one of the first British citizens to undergo gender reassignment surgery. April Ashley. / Ph. DR Despite the success of her transition, Ashley later faced legal setbacks. Her «secret» transition was leaked by a British tabloid, resulting in the high-profile Corbett v. Corbett divorce case in which a British court ruled her marriage invalid on the grounds that she was legally male. «In Paris, I debated with myself the decision to have a sex change. I knew I would be pioneering a dangerous operation», Ashley once wrote, reflecting on her decision. «The doctor told me there was a 50-50 chance I would not come through. However, I knew I was a woman and that I could not live in a male body. I had no choice. I flew to Casablanca and the rest, as they say, is history», she recalled. Another prominent patient was acclaimed British writer and journalist Jan Morris, who underwent surgery at Burou's clinic in 1972 at age 45. Her transition further established Burou not just as a renowned surgeon but as a figure of international medical acclaim. «I made her a real woman» In a 1974 interview with Paris Match, Burou described how he began performing gender reassignment surgeries: «I started this specialty almost by accident, because a pretty woman came to see me. In reality, it was a man—I only realized afterward». The patient, he said, felt their body was «an accident». Burou performed a three-hour operation, «I made her a real woman», he claimed. Other famous clients of Burou's Casablanca clinic is believed to be Amanda Lear, the iconic singer and muse of Salvador Dali. She is rumored to have had her surgery performed by Burou in 1964, reportedly for $1,250, reportedly paid by Dali. As societal attitudes shifted and the medical world caught up, Burou presented his techniques at conferences in Stanford and Paris and was profiled in international outlets, including Time. By the late 1970s, he was reported to have performed between 800 and 3,000 surgeries. From the documentary, I am a woman now. / Ph. DR Georges Burou died in February 1987 in a boating accident off the Moroccan coast. Yet his legacy lives on, not only in surgical textbooks but in the lives of the women he helped affirm. In 2011, the documentary I Am A Woman Now (originally titled Casablanca Revisited) revisited this part of the city's history by following several trans women who underwent surgery at Burou's clinic. All of them, despite different life paths, share one defining connection: Casablanca and Dr. Burou.
