Raisi ditches interview with CNN reporter who refused to wear a headscarf

“After weeks of planning and eight hours of setting up translation equipment, lights and cameras, we were ready. But no sign of President Raisi.”

By World Israel News Staff

CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour was scheduled to interview Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in New York on Wednesday. The hardline leader of the Islamic Republic had addressed the 77th UN General Assembly earlier that day.

As the time for the interview was approaching, Amanpour was informed through his aides that she would be required to wear a hijab. Despite weeks of planning ahead of time for the event, this was the first she heard of the demand.

The veteran reporter refused to comply, and the interview did not take place.

“This was going to be President Raisi’s first ever interview on US soil, during his visit to NY for UNGA,” Amanpour tweeted the next day. “After weeks of planning and eight hours of setting up translation equipment, lights and cameras, we were ready. But no sign of President Raisi.”

“Protests are sweeping Iran & women are burning their hijabs after the death last week of Mahsa Amini, following her arrest by the ‘morality police.’ Human rights groups say at least  8 have been killed. Last night, I planned to ask President Raisi about all this and much more,” she wrote, adding that she “couldn’t agree to this unprecedented and unexpected condition.”

“And so we walked away. The interview didn’t happen. As protests continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi,” she concluded.

Raisi gave his first interview with a Western reporter, CBS journalist Lesley Stahl, which was aired last Sunday night on CBS. It was held in Iran ahead of the president’s trip to New York, and Stahl complied with his demands.

“I was told how to dress, not to sit before he did, and not to interrupt him,” Stahl told her viewers.