Iran’s president pulled out of an interview with CNN after Amanpour refused a request to wear headscarves

CNN
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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi pulled out of a long-planned interview with CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday after she declined a last-minute request to wear a headscarf.

About 40 minutes after the scheduled start of the interview, and because of Raisi’s delay, an aide told Amanpour that the president suggested she wear a headscarf. Amanpour said she “politely declined.”

Amanpour, who grew up in the Iranian capital Tehran and speaks fluent Farsi, said she wears a headscarf while reporting in Iran to comply with local laws and customs, “otherwise you wouldn’t be able to work as a journalist.” But she said she would not cover her head to conduct an interview with an Iranian official outside a country where it is not required.

“Here in New York or anywhere else outside of Iran, I’ve never been asked by any Iranian president — and I’ve interviewed every one of them since 1995 — inside or outside of Iran, I’ve never been asked to wearing a scarf on my head,” she said on CNN’s “New Day” on Thursday.

“I very politely declined on behalf of myself and CNN and women journalists everywhere because it’s not a requirement.”

Iranian law requires all women to wear head coverings and loose clothing in public. The rule has been imposed in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and is mandatory for every woman in the country – including tourists, visiting political figures and journalists.

Amanpour said Raisi’s aide made it clear that the interview — which would be the Iranian president’s first on American soil — would not take place if she was not wearing a headscarf. He called it “a matter of respect” given that these are the holy months of Muharram and Safar, and mentioned the “situation in Iran”, alluding to the protests sweeping the country, she added.

Anti-government protests erupted in Iran last week over the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police on charges of violating the headscarf law.

Thousands took to the streets, with some women cutting their hair and burning their hijabs to protest the law. Human rights groups said at least eight people were killed during the demonstrations, which were met with a sharp crackdown by authorities, according to witnesses and videos shared on social media.

The demonstrations appear to be the largest scale of defiance against the Islamic Republic’s rule, which has become tougher since the hardline Raisi government was elected last year. After eight years of moderate rule by Hassan Rouhani, Iran elected Raisi, an ultraconservative head of the judiciary whose views align with those of the country’s powerful cleric and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In Iran, the headscarf is a powerful symbol of a set of personal rules imposed by the country’s spiritual leaders that govern what people can wear, look and do. Over the past decade, protests have erupted as many Iranians have come to resent these restrictions.

Amini’s death fueled an outpouring of long-simmering anger over restrictions on personal freedoms. Surveys and reports in recent years have shown that a growing number of Iranian women do not believe that the hijab or headscarf should be compulsory.

Iranian officials said Amini died after suffering a “heart attack” and falling into a coma, but her family said she had no pre-existing heart disease, according to Emtedad news, Iran’s pro-reform media. Skepticism about officials’ account of her death also sparked public outrage.

CCTV footage released by Iran’s state media showed Mahsa Amini collapsing at a “re-education” center where she was taken by morality police to receive “guidance” on her clothing.

Amanpour had planned to investigate Raizi about Amini’s death and the protests, as well as the nuclear deal and Iran’s support for Russia in Ukraine, but said he had to leave.

“As the protests in Iran continue and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi,” she said in Twitter thread.