Tehran , Iran ( CNN ) -- They may be a far cry from their Western counterparts fighting for the acceptance to breast-feed -- or go topless -- in public , but two girls clobbered a cleric recently in a small town in Iran when he admonished one of them to cover herself more completely . The cleric said he asked `` politely , '' but the girl 's angry reaction and some pugilistic double-teaming with her friend landed the holy man in the hospital , according to an account Monday in the semiofficial Mehr News Agency . Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti said he encountered the girls on his way to the mosque in the village of Shahmirzad for noon prayers in late August . Women 's bodies : The public perception of private parts . He told one of the girls to cover up , the report said . `` She responded by telling me to cover my eyes , which was very insulting to me , '' Beheshti said . So he asked her a second time to cover up and also to put a lid on what he felt was verbal abuse . She hit the man of the cloth , and he hit the ground . `` I do n't remember what happened after that , '' he said . `` I just felt her kicks and heard her insults . '' Beheshti , who emerged from the infirmary three days later , said he did not file a complaint against the girls . But he does n't mind the local prosecutor 's investigation into the matter either `` as long as the case helps the cause of Islamic hijab . '' The girls may have put the `` jab '' into `` hijab , '' but fighting with morality police or private individuals telling women to cover up is rare in small towns . It 's more common in larger cities , where women are more likely to take a stand . Opinion : My hijab is my hoodie . CNN 's Shirzad Bozorgmehr reported from Tehran , and CNN 's Ben Brumfield reported from Atlanta .
Two girls beat up a cleric on his way to noon prayers , the reports says . He asked one of them to cover herself to him with Islamic hijab . The girl asked him to cover his eyes , he said . The cleric was hospitalized for three days .