Update: Amid Taheri Press Release on Iranian Badges Story

Last Friday, Canada's National Post newspaper ran two stories about what they proclaimed to be a shocking new development in Iran: the passing of a law that would require non-Muslims to be identified with coloured badges.

The front page story 'Iran Eyes Badges for Jews' was written by Chris Wattie. The second, 'A Colour Code for Infidels', by Amid Taheri. (You can read about the debunking and the fallout here and here.

Amid Taheri has now issued a press release, standing by his story:

Regarding the dress code story it seems that my column was used as the basis for a number of reports that somehow jumped the gun.
As far as my article is concerned I stand by it.
The law has been passed by the Islamic Majlis and will now be submitted to the Council of Guardians. A committee has been appointed to work out the modalities of implementation.
Many ideas are being discussed with regard to implementation,
including special markers, known as zonnars, for followers of
Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, the only faiths other than Islam that are recognized as such.
[...]
I do not know which of these ideas or any will be eventually adopted. We will know once the committee appointed to discuss them presents its report, perhaps in September.

Interestingly, the Islamic Republic authorities refuse to issue an
official statement categorically rejecting the concept of dhimmitude and the need for marking out religious minorities.
I raised the issue not as a news story, because news of the new law was already several days old, but as an opinion column to alert the outside world to this most disturbing development.

This, however, is what Taheri originally wrote in his National Post article:

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).

The new law, drafted during the presidency of Muhammad Khatami in 2004, had been blocked within the Majlis. That blockage, however, has been removed under pressure from Khatami's successor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The new law replaces the one passed in 1982 dealing with women's clothes.
[...]
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. It is not clear what will happen to followers of other religions, including Hindus, Bahais and Buddhists, not to mention plain agnostics and atheists, whose very existence is denied by the Islamic Republic.

So, despite Taheri's claims in his press release that 'Many ideas are being discussed with regard to implementation', his article was not so ambiguous. Stating that 'Religious minorities would have their own colour schemes' speaks for itself. What Taheri told the world was not his opinion. He stated it as fact.

As I noted, this story how now been widely debunked by many officials of organizations who would rightly be concerned with the passage of such a law. Taheri provides absolutely no evidence to back up his claims. If he is so sure of his supposed facts, why can't he or anyone else provide an actual copy of this supposed law? That would go far to prove his credibility. Instead, he now blames others of 'jumping the gun', when it was actually he who did so by composing a news story based on what came across as actual facts - not his opinions.

The Financial Times adds this information about Taheri:

A contributor to various newspapers including the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal and Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a leading Arabic-language newspaper, Mr Taheri is an opponent of talks between the US and Iran.

He wrote in the New York Post last month the US should “go for regime change in Tehran” as the only way to stop Iran’s drive to “dominate the region and use it as the nucleus of an Islamic superpower which would then seek global domination”.

That says it all.