Retraction of this story from your own link P4B-----

Experts say report of badges for Jews in Iran is untrue

Chris Wattie
National Post

Friday, May 19, 2006


Several experts are casting doubt on reports that Iran had passed a law requiring the country??s Jews and other religious minorities to wear coloured badges identifying them as non-Muslims.

The Iranian embassy in Otttawa also denied the Iranian government had passed such a law.

A news story and column by Iranian-born analyst Amir Taheri in yesterday??s National Post reported that the Iranian parliament had passed a sweeping new law this week outlining proper dress for Iran??s majority Muslims, including an order for Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians to wear special strips of cloth.


Hormoz Ghahremani, a spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa, said in an e-mail to the Post yesterday that, ??We wish to categorically reject the news item.

??These kinds of slanderous accusations are part of a smear campaign against Iran by vested interests, which needs to be denounced at every step.?

Sam Kermanian, of the U.S.-based Iranian-American Jewish Federation, said in an interview from Los Angeles that he had contacted members of the Jewish community in Iran ?? including the lone Jewish member of the Iranian parliament ?? and they denied any such measure was in place.

Mr. Kermanian said the subject of ??what to do with religious minorities? came up during debates leading up to the passing of the dress code law.

??It is possible that some ideas might have been thrown around,? he said. ??But to the best of my knowledge the final version of the law does not demand any identifying marks by the religious minority groups.?

Ali Reza Nourizadeh, an Iranian commentator on political affairs in London, suggested that the requirements for badges or insignia for religious minorities was part of a ??secondary motion? introduced in parliament, addressing the changes specific to the attire of people of various religious backgrounds.

Mr. Nourizadeh said that motion was very minor and was far from being passed into law.

That account could not be confirmed.

Meir Javdanfar, an Israeli expert on Iran and the Middle East who was born and raised in Tehran, said yesterday that he was unable to find any evidence that such a law had been passed.

??None of my sources in Iran have heard of this,? he said. ??I don??t know where this comes from.?

Mr. Javdanfar said that not all clauses of the law had been passed through the parliament and said the requirement that Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians wear special insignia might be part of an older version of the Islamic dress law, which was first written two years ago.

??In any case, there is no way that they could have forced Iranian Jews to wear this,? he added. ??The Iranian people would never stand for it.?


National Post, with files from Allan Woods, CanWest News Service
© National Post 2006