Disinformation on Iran

The current politics of Iran are quite bad enough without the need for fake stories.

There's a story going the rounds that the Iranian government has passed dress-code laws which will force Jews to wear yellow strips on their clothes, and Christians to wear red ones.

Since it got publicised in Canada's The National Post by the otherwise well reputed Amir Taheri,  it's got widely taken up. Melanie Phillips reproduces it here. The Jerusalem Post also ran it on Friday.

But Iranian pro-democracy bloggers like Arash at Kamangir have demonstrated that this story is a hoax.

Now the National Post has published a detailed refutation of its own story:

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 Kermanian does give an instance of a genuine example of discrimination against non-Muslims in Iran:

Jews in Iran still face widespread, systematic discrimination. “For example if they sell food they have to identify themselves and their shops as non-Muslim,”

But that's a very long way from the hoax story, which so obviously evokes the spectre of the Jews under Nazi occupation being forced to wear the yellow star.

The Jerusalem Post tonight carries official Iranian denials, along with a substantial part of its earlier coverage. Given the distrust most readers feel over current Iranian denials that it has a weapons programme, that may appear less than convincing. It's a pity the JP doesn't fully report the National Post's retraction or the more convincing evidence from Iranian bloggers who can be relied on not to carry Iranian propaganda.

As Farid of Webgardesh remarks, the west is often all too ready to pass up on the need to check out the facts before taking on stories from Iran on trust. From whatever source.

UPDATE: Camilla Batmanghelidjh, a psychotherapist, one of the guests on this morning's BBC Radio 4 news review programme Broadcasting House, repeats the hoax story to demonstrate how destructive the process of typecasting people can be. The programme presenter, Matthew Bannister remarks how disturbing the story is, with its links to the history of the Holocaust. Camilla subsequently, in passing, includes the comment "if this is true", but the story is otherwise treated as if solid fact.  I send in an email to say the story is a hoax.The programme moves on to other business and finishes without further reference to the story.

Comments

[Yehudit]

The story was not a "hoax," just incomplete information which was filled in and re-evaluated as new information came out. all the blogs I know of behaved very responsibly in updating their information.

I will reserve judgement for now, but badging infidels has been a common practice in Islamic countries and given the tone of Iran's current regime, it would not be outlandish to believe they would do this. My understanding is that badges for infidels did come up in a discussion in the Iranian parliament about a new restrictive dress code law which is NOT a hoax.

Iran still discriminates against Jews. There is one Jewish MP. Do you think he would say if it was true?

[Judy]

Yehudit, the original story by Amir Taheri states:

.....the reason for hopefulness is a law passed by the Islamic Majlis (parliament) on Monday.

The law mandates the government to make sure that all Iranians wear "standard Islamic garments" designed to remove ethnic and class distinctions reflected in clothing, and to eliminate "the influence of the infidel" on the way Iranians, especially, the young dress. It also envisages separate dress codes for religious minorities, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, who will have to adopt distinct colour schemes to make them identifiable in public. The new codes would enable Muslims to easily recognize non-Muslims so that they can avoid shaking hands with them by mistake, and thus becoming najis (unclean).....

Religious minorities would have their own colour 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 colour red. Zoroastrians end up with Persian blue as the colour of their zonnar

The blogger translation I quoted demonstrates convincingly, to my mind, that there is no factual basis for the above statements in the Amir Taheri story, other than that a law regarding Islamic dress has been passed. I don't know how he came to include these statements abut the supposed requirements to mark out Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. I regard Taheri as usually a very well informed and helpful source, so I was very taken aback to see the evidence that this story was untrue. Things coming up for discussion in parliament is very different from unqualified statements that a law has been passed, with the very specific requirements about the compulsion of Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians referred to in the story.

I also gave an instance of ongoing actual discrimination against Jews and other non Muslims in Iran.

I think the Jewish MP may well be under some pressure in what he may or may not say. On the other hand the bloggers I have quoted are ones whose information I have come to trust, and who are neither overt nor covert supporters of the Islamist regime.

[sean]

Ok, just a question... If all Muslim Iranians were to follow such a dress code, then wouldnt religious minotorities stand out quite a bit automatically? When one of the police or volunteer busybodies harrases them for not wearing the proper dress would they not have to state "Im a Christian." or "Im a Jew"? Would they not have to prove it with some sort of ducmentation? They might as well sew a cross or a star on their sleave and save everyone the bother... oh, wait, that was what all the fuss was about in the first place, right? It seems that the "truth" of this story is nearly the same as the "false" story that was originally posted. No? Maybe forcing everyone in your country to obey a dress code is a bit much in the first place. No?

[Judy]

Sean, the text of the law passed doesn't actually say anyonewill actually be forced to wear this dress. Or that only Muslims will wear the national dress. The text does suggest otherwise, albeit referring "respecting" other ethnic group symbols.

What seems clear is that they want to stop the import of western, "non-Islamic" clothing. It seems to me to be more of a war against sexy designer clothing which young Iranians seem to be pretty keen on wearing.

It really reminds me of the Chinese cultural revolution period when everyone was forced to wear blue Mao jackets. So I don't think the reality of the story is the same as the hoax story.

[Steve M]

I notice that Melanie's guns are still blazing.