President Raisi cancels CNN interview after Amanpour refuses to wear headscarf
Christiane Amanpour, a veteran journalist, reported on Thursday that an interview with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was canceled because he requested that she wear a headscarf, the subject of significant protests in Iran.
Amanpour, the main foreign anchor of CNN who also has a show on US public broadcaster PBS, said she was prepared for the interview on the fringes of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday when an aide requested she cover her hair.
“I politely declined. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves,” Amanpour, who was born in Britain to an Iranian father, wrote on Twitter.
“I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I have interviewed them outside Iran,” she said. “I said that I couldn’t agree to this unprecedented and unexpected condition.”
President Raisi cancels CNN interview after Amanpour refuses to wear headscarf
She posted a picture of herself — without a headscarf — sitting in front of an empty chair where Raisi would have been.
An adviser to Raisi, a hardline cleric, informed Amanpour that he was insisting on a headscarf because of “the situation in Iran,” she said.
Since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was imprisoned by morality police who enforce the clerics’ guidelines on how women dress, Iran has been overwhelmed by nearly a week of protests.
According to a non-governmental organization, at least 31 Iranian civilians have been slain in the crackdown on protests in which women have been spotted burning headscarves.
