"This report is a complete fabrication and is totally false," Maurice Motammed told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Tehran on Friday, May19 .

"It is a lie, and the people who invented it wanted to make political gain by doing so."

Canada's National Post newspaper claimed on Friday that Iran's parliament passed a law this week on setting a public dress code, requiring non-Muslims to wear special insignia.

The daily alleged that Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear a yellow, red or blue strip of cloth, respectively, on the front of their clothes.

The unconfirmed reports on the non-Muslims' dress code has drawn immediate rebukes from many Western countries.

The United States said that the report would be "despicable" reminder of Nazi Germany's persecution of the Jews.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Friday, during an official visit to Ottawa, that "anything of that kind would be totally repugnant to civilized countries."

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also said he had only seen reports about the law but that he would not be surprised by them.

Clothing Bill

The Jewish lawmaker said he had been present in parliament when a bill to promote an Iranian and Islamic style of dress for women was voted.

"In the law, there is no mention of religious minorities," he added.

Motammed said MPs representing Iran's Jewish, Christian and Zoroastrian minorities sit on all parliamentary committees, particularly the cultural one.

Iranian lawmaker Emad Afroogh, who sponsored the bill, said the Canadian daily's report was totally fabricated and bare of truth.

"It's a sheer lie. The rumors about this are worthless," said Afroogh, who also chairs the parliament's cultural committee.

"The bill is not related to minorities. It is only about clothing," he said.

The draft law discourages women from wearing Western clothing. It also increases taxes on imported clothes and fund an advertising campaign to encourage citizens to wear Islamic-style garments.

The draft law was preliminary approved by parliament on Sunday, May14 . It was later re-debated by parliament last week but failed to pass.

"Please tell them (in the West) to check the details of the bill. There is no mention of religious minorities and their clothing in the bill," Afroogh told AFP.

 http://islamonline.net/English/News/2006-05/20/article02.shtml