The Iranian president says that wearing a hijab is the law after a video goes viral of a man in Masshad throwing yogurt at women who were not wearing one.

President Ebrahim Raisi said that the hijab is "a legal matter" in Iran after a video went viral that seemed to show a man throwing yogurt at two women who were not wearing hijabs in a shop near a holy Shia Muslim city.

After the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman in the custody of the morality police in September for allegedly breaking hijab rules, more and more women have disobeyed the government by taking off their veils. The security forces used force to stop the protests.

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The video seemed to show two women walking into a store. Soon after that, a man came up to the women and started talking to them. He then grabs what looks like a big pot of yogurt and dumps its contents on the heads of the two women.

State media reported on Saturday that two women, a mother and her daughter, were ordered to be arrested by judicial authorities in a town near the northeastern city of Mashhad for breaking Iran's strict rules about how women should dress and "doing something that wasn't allowed."

Authorities put out an arrest warrant for the man "on charges of insulting and disturbing the peace," the Mizan Online website of the judiciary said.

Women are still often seen without their headscarves on in malls, restaurants, shops, and on the streets, even though doing so could get them arrested.

Videos of women not wearing veils and fighting back against the morality police are all over social media.

Raisi said live on state TV, "If some people say they don't believe [in the hijab], it's good to use persuasion. But the important thing is that there is a legal requirement, and the hijab is now a legal matter."

The owner of the dairy shop, who confronted the attacker, was warned, according to the authorities.

Reports on social media said that his shop had been closed, but a local news agency said that he had been given permission to reopen and would have to "explain himself" to a court.

Iranian media said that the head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, had said that women who go out in public without covering their faces will be prosecuted "without mercy."

After the 1979 revolution in Iran, the government passed a law that says women must cover their hair and wear long, loose clothes to hide their bodies. People who broke the rules have been shamed in public, given fines, or been arrested.

In a statement released by the Ministry of the Interior on Thursday, the veil was called "one of the cultural foundations of the Iranian people" and "one of the practical principles of the Islamic Republic." The statement also said that there would be no "retreat or tolerance" on the issue.

It told people to talk to uncovered women. In the past, such orders gave some people the confidence to attack women without getting caught.

The government has often ignored people breaking the hijab rule, which has angered religious leaders and politicians who support the government.

Media reports say that on Saturday, a religious leader and a lawmaker said they would take action themselves if the government doesn't do more to enforce the rules that say people must wear hijab.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES