Focus on the Brownshirts, not just the Yellow Stars
Amir Taheri tells us how Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spends his time, wasting the talents of the Iranian people in his fashion show for the return of the Mahdi, or so it might appear. We believe it is something else entirely, and not just the replay of Jews wearing Yellow stars in Nazi Germany. First, read Taheri:
According to Ahmadinejad, the new Islamic uniforms will establish “visual equality” for Iranians as they prepare for the return of the Hidden Imam. A committee that consists of members from the Ministry of Islamic Orientation, the Ministry of Commerce and the Cultural Subcommittee of the Islamic Majlis is scheduled to propose the new uniforms by next autumn. These would then have to be approved by “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei before being imposed by law.
Although the final shape of the uniforms is yet to be established, there is consensus on a number of points. The idea of adopting an Arab-style robe (known as dishdash) for men has been rejected along with a proposal that men wear a form of turban. “Iranians have always worn trousers,” says Mostafa Pourhardani, minister of Islamic orientation. “Even when the ancient Greeks wore woman-style dresses with skirts, the Persians had trousers. We are not going to force Iranian men to do away with trousers, although they predate Islam.” What men will wear on top is not clear yet. Some Islamic experts want a kind of long, almost European-style jacket known as sardari and used in Iran for centuries. Others propose only a waistcoat.
On color schemes, however, there seems to be consensus. Islamic legislators are unanimous that Islam is incompatible with “gay, wild, provocative colors” such as red, yellow and light blue (which are supposed to be favored by Satan). The colors to be imposed by law are expected to be black, brown, dark blue and dark gray. Some Majlis members have been trying to lift the ban on green – which is, after all, the color of the Bani Hashem, the family of the Prophet Muhammad, and thus regarded as the color of Islam. The majority view, however, is that green is not “serious enough” to underline the gravity of a Muslim man’s position.
Religious minorities would have their own color 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 color red. Zoroastrians end up with Persian blue as the color 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. The new law imposes a total ban on wearing neckties and bow ties, which are regarded as “symbols of the Cross.” Will Iranian Christians be allowed to wear them, nevertheless? No one knows.
The law also mandates the government to wage a campaign against “expensive attire” without defining it. Some mullahs, for example, wear robes made of pure hand-woven silk that cost several thousand dollars. Nor is it clear whether the kind of blouson that Ahmadinejad often wears would be deemed Islamic. (Shops in Tehran are selling the so-called “presidential” blouson for $3 apiece.) One aim of the new law is to impose a total ban on imports of clothes and dress designs from the West. The Majlis hopes that all jeans will disappear form the Iranian scene within five years. The boutiques selling haute couture Western gear for men and women will also be closed over the next few years. A total ban on designer items, marked by logos, will come into force by the end of the year. ‘There is no sense in a Muslim man or woman wearing something that is, in fact, an advertisement for an infidel designer or clothing merchant,” says Pourhardani.
Another aim of the new law is to abolish the chador, the overall piece of cloth that Iranian women have tucked themselves in for centuries. The reason is that the chador existed before the Khomeinist revolution and thus cannot be regarded as “properly Islamic.” Women must wear clothes that would, in fact, transform them into advertising billboards for the regime’s ideology. One remaining problem is to decide the age at which girls should wear the uniforms. At present, the hijab is mandatory from the age of 6. But some of Ahmadinejad’s advisers want to reduce that to 4.
It is our view that Ahmadinejad means to identify Muslims worldwide, not simply those who are not Muslim in Iran. Ahmadienjad is a man of global ambitions, the worldwide submission to Allah. Ahmadinejad has soldiers throughout the world, and notably in London and Paris and the other capitals of Europe. Some of them can be seen here in the Cartoon Riots. Right now they appear a little rag-tag; they will appear far less so in their Iranian brown and black uniforms as soldiers of Islam.
One of the puzzles to us of Iran’s war strategy is that it has few conventional military resources. That puzzle has, in part, been solved by this new, bold move of Ahmadinejad to give Muslim men worldwide a uniform they can wear with pride. They will be stationed on the front lines in Palestine, Jakarta, Damascus, Paris, London, Rome, Berlin and probably New York as they echo Ahmadinejad’s ever-bolder demands in the next few years. Undoubtedly they will include many men and boys who are Basiji, the young martyr-soldiers trained in the millions by Iran to kill the enemy without concern for their own safety. They may make the Brownshirts of the 1930′s look tame by comparison.