TEHRAN – Iranian authorities have ordered the arrest of two women, judges said Saturday, after a viral video showed a man assaulting them for not wearing the hijab.
Footage widely shared on social media in Iran showed a man assaulting two female customers, who were not wearing the mandatory hijab or headscarf, in a shop after verbally altercation.
The footage shows the man pouring containers of yoghurt over the heads of the two women before the shopkeeper confronts him.
Authorities issued an arrest warrant against the man “on charges of committing an offensive act and disturbing order,” the Mizan Online website reported the judges.
But the police also arrested the two women for “committing a prohibited act” by removing their headscarves.
“Necessary notices have been issued to the owner of the shop where this happened to comply with legal and Sharia principles as per the regulations,” he said.
During Ramadan, religious men, especially supporters of #Iranthe Islamic Regime becomes wilder. See how a regime supporter attacked a woman without covering her hair in Shandiz. The reason for the brutal reaction of Muslim men to women not wearing hijab this month is… pic.twitter.com/QEurSYS8yl
— Babak Taghvaee – The Crisis Watch (@BabakTaghvaee1) March 31, 2023
It comes after the death in Iranian custody of Kurd Mahsa Amini in September sparked months of protests after the 22-year-old was arrested for allegedly breaching the strict dress code for women.
Hundreds of people, including dozens of security personnel, have been killed and thousands arrested in what Iranian officials have described as “riots” fomented by Israel and the West.
On Saturday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated calls declaring that Iranian women should wear the hijab as a “religious necessity.”
“Hijab is a legal matter and it is obligatory to observe it,” he said.
In late March, head of the judiciary Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said that “removing hijab is tantamount to hostility towards values, and people who commit such an abnormality will be punished.”