
CNN reporter refuses to wear hijab, Iranian President withdraws from interview
NEW YORK: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi pulled out of a long-planned interview with senior CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour after the woman refused a last-minute request that she wear a hijab.
About 40 minutes before the interview was scheduled to begin, an aide told Amanpour that the president had asked her to wear a headscarf, and that the request had been ‘politely declined’.
Amanpour, who is the news agency’s Chief International Correspondent, grew up in Tehran and can communicate fluently in Persian. Amanpour said, she wears a headscarf while on duty in Iran to comply with local laws and customs.
“Otherwise, you can’t do your job as a journalist. But covering your head to conduct an interview with an Iranian official, outside of Iran, is not one to abide by.
“In New York, or anywhere outside of Iran, I have never been asked by any Iranian president to wear a headscarf… and I have interviewed every one of them since 1995,” he said on CNN’s New Day program on Thursday.
Raisi is in New York to attend the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.
Iranian law requires all women to wear headscarves and loose clothing in public. The rule has been enforced in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and it is mandatory for every woman in the country including tourists or visitors.
Anti-government protests erupted across Iran last week over the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, while in custody, after being arrested by Iranian police on charges of breaking the law for not wearing a headscarf.
source – Agency