The two women, aged 21 and 22, study geography in Shahrouds Open University. Unidentified assailants travelling on a motorbike moved next to them in Ferdowsi Street and threw acid on their faces as they were walking. The attackers immediately left the scene and have not been arrested.
Radical Islamists operating under the umbrella of the paramilitary Bassij force and Ansar-e Hezbollah have stepped up their campaign against the mal-veiling of women and girls since the election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian President regularly addresses meetings of these Islamic vigilantes and praises their efforts to purify the Islamic Republic of the vestiges of corrupt Western culture.