A reporter from an American media organization refused to give an interview to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who is in New York, after he asked her to cover her hair during the interview.
CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour said that none of Iran’s presidents set this condition for her when she interviewed them outside Iran. She stated that one of my boss’s aides understood her that his condition was related to “events in Iran”.
Again, I said that I couldn’t agree to this unprecedented and unexpected condition. 6/7
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) September 22, 2022
He was expected to be a major interview with CNN, the first for the Iranian president in the United States.
Christiane Amanpour said she was ready to talk on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, when an aide to the president insisted that she cover her hair at the request of my boss.
from iran protests
She later wrote on Twitter: “We are in New York and there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves.” She explained that the assistant president understood that the dialogue would not take place unless she covered her hair, saying, “It is a matter of respect.”
The CNN team abandoned the dialogue, rejecting what he called an “unprecedented and unexpected condition.” The announcer published a picture of her without a headscarf in front of a vacant chair on which the Iranian president was supposed to sit, during the interview.
The interview coincides with violent unrest in the country following the death of a young woman after she was arrested for violating a law related to head coverings. Mahsa Amini, 21, fell into a coma last week, hours after she was arrested by the morality police. On their seventh day, protests reached 80 other cities and towns, and at least 31 people were killed in the confrontations.
Iran’s rulers fear renewed unrest in the country in 2019 to protest the rise in gasoline prices, which were the bloodiest in Iran’s history. Archyde.com reported that 1,500 people were killed in those protests.