Iran Denies Jewish Badge from Planck's Constant

Usually, Iran gets in your face if you try to interfere in their national affairs, so why the quick denial of yesterday's story in the Canadian National Post?

From Bloomberg.com May 20 2006:

Iran denied a report that it passed a law that would force non-Muslims in the Islamic Republic to wear colored labels identifying their religion.

The Canadian National Post yesterday reported Iran's parliament passed a law last week for a public dress code that would require Jews to wear a yellow strip of cloth on their clothing, Christians a red one, and Zoroastrians blue. [...]

"Such a bill was never introduced in the parliament," said Maurice Motammed, Iran's only Jewish deputy who represents Iran's community of 25,000 Jews, on state television today. "Iranian minorities benefit from the same liberties and social rights as other people."
[...]

The report was described by Iran's local state media as a failed "campaign lead by a Zionist newspaper."

"Iranian minorities benefit from the same liberties and social rights as other people." Yeah right, except Iran’s civil, criminal and commercial codes, inter alia, have substantially restricted the rights and freedoms of non-Muslim Iranians in ways that has been unprecedented since the constitutional revolution of 1906. From Legal Status of Non-Muslims in Iran - rozaneh magazine

Last month Iranian Fashion Police began a new crackdown on loose dressed women:

[Apr 22 2006] The police are set to begin a strict crackdown today on women flouting Islamic dress codes. "In accordance with the law, the police will confront those who appear in public in an indecent and inappropriate way," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Tehran's police chief, Morteza Talaei, as saying.
"The police will seize women with tight coats and cropped trousers." Enforcement of strict rules requiring women to cover all their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise the shape of their bodies became more lax after Mohammad Khatami's election as president in 1997, but hard-liners have been undoing these concessions since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad swept to power last year. From The NY Times

One of those undoings was a bill passed by Iran's Parliament on May 14 to promote "an Iranian and Islamic style of dress for women". Everyone, including non-Muslims would have to comply.

Tehran: The parliament has launched a new initiative to promote Iranian and Islamic fashion, with MPs driven by the fear of a cultural invasion and inspired by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Laleh Eftekhari a female MP said here on May 14.
Laleh Eftekhari, one of the 12 female MPs in the 290-seat conservative-controlled assembly explained that young people's clothing does not reflect their Islamic and Iranian identity. It is an expression of foreign views.
[...]
Every post-pubescent female in Iran, regardless of her nationality or religion, is obliged to observe the Islamic dress code and cover her shape and hair whenever outside the home - preferably in black.

Although most Iranian women do abide by the rules, in many cities headscarves have been slipping, trouser hems rising and coats tightening. Ayatollah Khamenei voiced alarm over this state of affairs two years ago.

Deputies in Iran’s conservative-run parliament have begun preparing designs for what will be a new national costume aimed at stemming the encroachment of Western fashion. Rest of Story

This clothing design regime will extend to the whole of Iranian culture including television and commerce:

As per Article 4 of the plan which was endorsed by 137 votes, Iranian and Islamic clothing designs will be included in laws pertaining to industrial property and patent registration.
Article 7 stipulates that ministries of cooperatives and labor prioritize designers and producers of Iranian-Islamic clothing patterns in offering government facilities and issuing permits.
Health Ministry and the Islamic Republic of Iran Police will ban the sale of secondhand foreign clothes that are smuggled into the country. Iran Daily

Iranian and Islamic clothing designs will be included in laws pertaining to industrial property and patent registration. This is why Islam has produced less than a handful of patents in over a century.

To support the production and sales of Iranian-Islamic patterns and garments, the Commerce Ministry will hold seasonal fairs of textiles and clothes for the public.