CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour said that she backed out of an interview with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after one of his aides said it would not happen unless she wore a headscarf.
Amanpour said she and her CNN team planned the interview over the course of weeks and spent eight hours Wednesday setting up translation equipment, lights and cameras.Forty minutes after the interview was scheduled to begin, an aide to the Iranian president came over and said the president was “suggesting” that Amanpour wear a headscarf in recognition of the holy months of Muharram and Safar, she wrote.
“The aide made it clear that the interview would not happen if I did not wear a headscarf,” she wrote. “He said it was ‘a matter of respect,’ and referred to ‘the situation in Iran’ — alluding to the protests sweeping the country.” “And so we walked away. The interview didn’t happen,” Amanpour wrote in the Twitter thread’s concluding post. “As protests continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi.”NBC News could not immediately reach Raisi for comment because the president’s office is closed until Saturday.
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