Iran Leader Shuns Christiane Amanpour Interview Over Refusal To Wear Headscarf

Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, has cancelled an interview in New York with the veteran CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour after she refused to wear a headscarf at his request. Christiane Amanpour had been due to interview Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of UNGA in New York. But he cancelled the interview after she refused to wear a headscarf, saying it was ‘a matter of respect’.

Amanpour said there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves in Iran. She added that no other Iranian president has required that she wear one when interviewing them outside Iran. Christiane Amanpour’s refusal to wear a headscarf for an interview with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was met with widespread praise online. “Freedeed hejab reflects an antiquated and intolerant ideology not a culture,” tweeted Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian-American policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment.

Amanpour posted a picture of herself wearing a white suit while sitting across from an empty chair as she awaited the Iranian president, her hair uncovered. At least 31 people have died in six days of protests since Amini’s death. Iranian women have been taking to the streets and the internet to burn their headscarves and cut their hair. One New York Times reporter was barred from a briefing for reporting that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was seriously ill.