What to wear, what to wear? or, the politics of faschion

The guys at Power Line have a couple of articles on the reports of new Iranian dress codes based upon your religion. The report is that the old Sunni practice (comparable to the one the Nazis used), wherein one identifies infidels and other enemies by the colors they are required to wear, is being revived. Word from Amir Taheri, in the New York Post, is, Ahmadinejead and his merry band of mullahs have plans to set a strict dress code all around:

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.

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.

While I do enjoy wearing red (Yeah, I'm an Aries. We like flashy and annoying), I'm not sure I'll be qualified to emblazon myself with it, under the mullahcracy's new rules. I'm not really a Christian. And I'm told that Persian blue really brings out the color of my eyes, but I''m not a Zoroastrian, so will I be in trouble if I wear turquoise or lapis lazuli? As for yellow... well, last time I wore yellow, I was dressed as a banana for halloween, but looked like some sort of mutant bumblebee instead.

All right, this is trivializing the real issue, which is the revival of one group's attempt to, first, weed out the "different" ones, and next, annihilate them. The Iranian leadaership has made no bones about this. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly stated that he will eliminate Israel and all the infidels from this globe as soon as he has the capability to do so.

Therefore, while I am not Christian, Jew, Muslim, Zoroastrian, or of any other particular faith (dang it's hard, sometimes, being agnostic!), I am seriously considering this color-coding thing, so that I, too, may make a statement about where my loyalties lie.

First and foremost, I will wear my all-American blue jeans, red tee shirt, and a white long-sleeved cotton shirt as a jacket (sun protection). Then, I'll go through my hat collection looking for the perfect sunshiny yellow cover. If I'm feeling particularly inclusive, I'll wear my black undies so as to make certain the Muslims aren't left out.

But now let us see how many "Moderate Muslims", in response to this dress code idea, begin to wear yellow and/or red.

And, let's see where the so-called human rights people dress, while we're at it.