Baghdad (AKI) -- The office of the Martyr al-Sadr, in the holy Shiite city of Najaf has denied news reports that the leader of the sect Moqtada al-Sadr had ordered all Christian and non Muslim women to wear a veil or face punishment. A letter has been circulating in Baghdad, signed by "The People's Foundation for the Master al-Mahdi Army", Sadr's powerful militia, warning Christian women to wear the veil and pointing out that the Virgin Mary worshipped by Christians did not have her head bare. In a statement to Adnkronos International (AKI) Sheikh Abu Zahra of the Sadrist movement declared that "this news is totally unfounded".

"Moqtada al-Sadr has never issued such an order neither in private nor in public" he added.

An English translation of the letter has been published by the AINA newsagency. In the text the words of the martyr Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr are underlined, when he inquired "Was the Virgin Mary (peace be upon her) unveiled so that Christian women be allowed to be unveiled? Was Fatima al-Zahra unveiled? And were the wives of the Caliphs in the First Caliphate or others unveiled? No and then no