Iranian urban legends

Journalist Amir Taheri in Thursday's National Post claimed that a recent updates to Iranian dress codes will include the following "Nazi" identifiers for non-Muslims:

Religious minorities would have their own color schemes. They will also have to wear special insignia, known as zonnar, to indicate their non-Islamic faiths. Jews would be marked out with a yellow strip of cloth sewn in front of their clothes, while Christians will be assigned the color red. Zoroastrians end up with Persian blue as the color of their zonnar.

Juan Cole says this is completely bogus and cites a number of official Iranian sources denying the existence of any such legislation.

Maurice Motamed, the representative of the Iranian Jewish community in Iran's parliament, has strongly denied the rumors started by Canada's National Post that the Iranian legislature has passed a law requiring members of religious communities to wear identifying badges.

The report was also denied on Montreal radio by Meir Javedanfar, Middle East Analyst and the Director for the Middle East Economic and Political Analysis Company.

According to Cole:

There is nothing in this legislation that prescribes a dress code or badges for Iranian religious minorities, and Maurice Motamed was present during its drafting and says nothing like that was even discussed.

to which he adds, "the whole thing is a steaming crock."

Interestingly enough, even the National Post is backpedalling from the story somewhat. Nonetheless, they're still trying to say they have their information on good authority:

According to the reports, Jews were to wear yellow cloth strips, called zonnar, while Christians were to wear red and Zoroastrians blue. The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Iranian expatriates living in Canada had confirmed the order had been passed, although it still had to be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect.

The Wiesenthal center has sent a letter to Kofi Annan, demanding he investigate:

Given President Ahmadinejad’s record of labeling the Holocaust a myth and calling for the obliteration of the State of Israel, we must urgently take action. Now is the time for the United Nations and the international community to launch an immediate investigation, to seek clarification from the Iranians themselves on whether or not the new “National Uniform Law” would single out non-Moslems and require them to wear a color-coded identification patch. If that is not their intention, then let President Ahmadinejad tell the world it is not so.

Journalist Taheri is listed as a member of Benador Associates, a PR firm that outcalls virtually every neo-con in the wingnut phone book. This is starting to look like the the latest salvo in the PR campaign to demonize the Iranians in preparation for the eventual war for regime change, followed by the arrival (to sweets and flowers, no less) of the exiled Iranian community to take over.