CNN interview with Iran President Ebrahim Raisi scrapped over headscarf demand
- News anchor Christiane Amanpour says she refused when an aide insisted she cover her hair because of ‘the situation in Iran’
- The country has been swept by hijab-burning protests since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the morality police
Veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour said on Thursday that an interview with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was scrapped after he insisted she wear a headscarf, the focus of major protests in the cleric-run state.
Amanpour, the chief international anchor of CNN who also has a show on US public broadcaster PBS, said she was ready for the interview on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly when an aide insisted 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.”
She posted a picture of herself – without a headscarf – sitting in front of an empty chair where Raisi would have been.
An aide to Raisi, a hardline cleric, told Amanpour that he was insisting on a headscarf because of “the situation in Iran”, she said.