2 women attacked with yoghurt, arrested for not wearing hijab in Iran

Tehran [Iran], April 3 : Two women have been arrested in Iran after a man attacked them with yoghurt, apparently for not wearing the hijab at a store in the northeastern city of Shandiz, according to a video and report published by the Mizan News Agency, the state-run media for Iran's judiciary, reported CNN.

Video of Thursday's incident shows a man approaching one of the women who is unveiled and speaking to her before proceeding to grab a tub of yoghurt from the store and throwing it, hitting both women in the head.

The video shows a male staff member removing the suspect from the store. The two women were arrested after being issued an arrest warrant for failing to wear the hijab in public, according to Mizan News Agency. Iran officials said the incident is under investigation, and the male suspect has been arrested for a disturbance of order, reported CNN.

Meanwhile, President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that the hijab was the law in Iran. "The important matter is that today we have a legal mandate. The legal mandate makes it mandatory for everyone to follow the law," said Raisi.

"If there are people who say that they do not share this belief of ours (the mandatory hijab), then this is a place for scientific and cultural centers as well as schools to discuss this and convince them," Raisi added.

Iran's Ministry of Interior said that the "hijab is an unquestionable religious necessity," according to a tweet from the agency on Saturday.

Under Iran's Islamic sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures. Violators have faced public rebuke, fines or arrest.

Describing the veil as "one of the civilizational foundations of the Iran nation" and "one of the practical principles of the Islamic Republic," an Interior Ministry statement on Thursday said there would be no "retreat or tolerance" on the issue.

It urged citizens to confront unveiled women. Such directives have in past decades emboldened hardliners to attack women without impunity.

Irans have taken to the streets nationwide in protest for several months against Iran's mandatory hijab law, and political and social issues across the country, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September.

Women have burned their headscarves and cut their hair, with some schoolgirls removing them in classrooms.

Those arrested for participating in anti-government demonstrations have faced various forms of abuse and torture, including electric shocks, controlled drowning, rape and mock executions.