Exiles: Iran Jews to wear yellow ribbons
Iranian expatriates reveal that ‘National Uniform Law’ authorized by Iranian parliament includes clause obligating Iranian Jews to wear yellow ribbon; Christians, other minority members to wear colored ribbons as well. ‘If law passes non-Muslims’ lives will become intolerable
Yitzhak Benhorin
WASHINGTON – Iranian expatriates said Friday that the "National Uniform Law" authorized by the Iranian parliament a few days ago, which is aimed at getting “Western” style clothing off the streets and advancing more traditional “Islamic” attire, also includes a clause obligating Iranian Jews to wear a yellow ribbon.
Members of the country’s Christian minority will be forces to wear a red ribbon, while those practicing the ancient Persian religion will be obligated to place a blue ribbon on their clothes.
The new law is expected to go into effect within the next few months after it is authorized by Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ali Behroozian, an Iranian currently residing in Toronto, said that should the law pass the lives of Iranians belonging to the non-Muslim minorities will become intolerable.
"They have all been persecuted for a while, but these new dress rules are going to make things worse for them," he said.
'Iranian regime has completely lost its mind'
Rabbi Marvin Heir, who heads the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said that Iran is getting "closer and closer to the Nazi ideology," adding that only an international outcry can prevent the law from going into effect.
Heir demanded that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan address the matter at once.
"The world ignored Hitler for many years; he was dismissed as a demagogue, they said he'd never come to power - and we were all wrong," he said.
Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Wiesenthal Center in Israel, said in response, “This is simply a catastrophe; it automatically brings one back to the Holocaust, and we do not need to remind the Israeli public that the yellow badges came just before the expulsion and extermination.
“There is no consolation in the fact that Christians are being labeled as well. The Iranian regime has completely lost its mind. The world cannot stand idly by, and I’m sure this development will place the Iranian issue at the top of the agenda during Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s visit to Washington,” he said.