Iran: Man pours yoghurt over heads of women without hijabs

From The Telegraph

Iran has ordered the arrest of two women after a video showing them being attacked with yoghurt for not wearing hijabs went viral.

The incident in the holy city of Mashad came as Iran’s judiciary chief threatened to prosecute women who defy the country’s strict rules on head coverings “without mercy”.

In the video, which surfaced as Iranians celebrated Nowruz, or the new year, a mother and daughter can be seen at a shop counter. A man who noticed that neither was wearing a hijab then enters the shop and confronts them before dumping a large tub of yoghurt over their heads.

Authorities on Saturday issued arrest warrants for the two women for “committing a forbidden act” by removing their headscarves. An arrest warrant has also been issued for the attacker “on charges of committing an insulting act and disturbance of order”,

“The Islamic republic regime has certainly evolved in its methods of attack on our women who defy the hijab. Yesterday it was throwing acid on their faces, today they are pouring yoghurt on their heads,” wrote one social media user.

But Seyed Davood Nabizadeh, the head of the local office for Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, defended the unknown perpetrator. “While we support our members to make sure that women observe the mandatory hijab, their actions must be advisory, rather than physical,” he said.

Uncovered hair, cleric Mohseni Ejei said, “is tantamount to enmity with our values”. Those “who commit such anomalous acts will be punished” and will be “prosecuted without mercy,” he said, without saying what the punishment entails.

…The Interior Ministry statement on Thursday said there would be no “retreat or tolerance” on the issue.

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

I like the way the shopkeeper drags the yoghurt thrower out of his shop, shaking him warmly by the throat as they go; I can’t see what he is doing to him off camera but hopefully getting him to pay for the wasted yoghurt.