Iran denies non-Muslim badge plan

Herald Sun
May. 20, 2006

AUSTRALIA, the US and Canada lost little time in blasting Iran for a report, quickly denied, that Tehran may force non-Muslims to wear coloured badges in public.

While acknowledging they had no details beyond a report in a Canadian newspaper, the three countries went on the offensive in separate statements, with Washington and Ottawa evoking the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

"If you did have such an occurrence, whether it was in Iran or elsewhere, it would certainly be despicable," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. "I think it has clear echoes of Germany under Hitler."

The National Post newspaper, citing human rights groups, reported today that Iran's parliament had passed a law this week that sets a public dress code and requires non-Muslims to wear a special insignia.

Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear a yellow, red or blue strip of cloth, respectively, on the front of their clothes, the newspaper stated.

Maurice Motammed, a Jewish member of Iran's Parliament, dismissed the report as "a complete fabrication" and said: "It is a lie, and the people who invented it wanted to make political gain."

Iran's conservative-dominated Parliament is debating a draft law that would discourage women from wearing Western clothing and increase taxes on imported clothes and fund an advertising campaign to encourage citizens to wear Islamic-style garments.

A draft received preliminary approval last Sunday and Parliament debated it this week, but the bill has not been passed.

In Tehran, MP Emad Afroogh, who sponsored the bill and chairs the parliament's cultural committee, said today there was no truth to the Canadian newspaper report.

"It's a sheer lie. The rumours about this are worthless," he said.

"The bill is not related to minorities. It is only about clothing," he said. "Please tell them (in the West) to check the details of the bill. There is no mention of religious minorities and their clothing in the bill," he said.

But McCormack, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Australian Prime Minister John Howard showed little inclination to give the benefit of the doubt to a regime widely criticised for its anti-Israeli statements.

"Unfortunately, we have seen enough already from the Iranian regime to suggest that it is very capable of this kind of action," Mr Harper said in Ottawa.

"I think it boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany," he added.

"The fact that such a measure could even be contemplated, I think, is absolutely abhorrent."

Mr Howard also expressed indignation during an official visit to Canada, calling the report "appalling" if confirmed.

"Anything of that kind would be totally repugnant to civilised countries, if it's the case, and something that would just further indicate to me the nature of this regime," he said.

Iran's new hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already come in for widespread criticism for suggesting that the Holocaust was a myth and calling for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map.

Mr McCormack said he had no details of the dress code described by the National Post but had seen "various similar news reports" in recent months and US officials were trying to learn more.