Christiane Amanpour's religion explored as Iran's president cancels interview with CNN anchor over refusal to wear hijab 

On Wednesday, September 21, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi cancelled an interview with CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour in New York after she refused to wear a headscarf.

The cancellation comes on the heels of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested and beaten by "morality police" for violating hijab laws in Iran. In a series of tweets, Christiane Amanpour said that she had scheduled an interview with the president, who was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. She wrote that she had planned to ask him questions about a variety of topics, including the protests that have erupted in his country since Amini's death.

Women across Iran are protesting the country’s laws that require them to wear a hijab in public.

Forty minutes after the interview was scheduled to commence in New York, an aide to the president reportedly approached Amanpour, a practitioner of three religions, and asked her to wear a hijab. He reportedly told her that it was a matter of faith and respect and alluded to the current protests in Iran and the obvious optics tethered to the situation.

Christiane Amanpour declined the request and said,

“I politely declined. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves. I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I have interviewed them outside Iran.”

When the aide persisted and said that the interview would not proceed without her acquiescing to the request, Amanpour did not falter and added that she couldn't agree to it given the “unprecedented and unexpected condition.”

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Christiane Amanpour refused faith to get in the way of journalistic integrity

Christiane Amanpour, a British-Iranian journalist, was raised in Tehran for a few years. Her father was a Muslim and her mother was Catholic. Amanpour's life in Tehran predated the 1979 Islamic revolution. Her memory of Iran is vastly different from the country it has morphed into in the last few decades, with the Islamic law requiring all women to wear a head covering and loose-fitting clothing in public. Amanpour, now married to a Jewish man, practices all three faiths and believes that they have all taught her that different faiths can co-exist.

In a statement to belief.net she said:

“My mother is Catholic, my father Muslim and so I’ve grown up with both faiths – and I happen to be married to a man who’s Jewish. So, I have all three faiths running right through my immediate family. It taught me tolerance. It taught me that all three faiths can exist together because we have so much in common.”

While Amanpour respects all religions, she did not let it hinder her journalistic integrity.

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Christiane Amanpour receives praise on social media after refusing to wear a hijab

After Christiane Amanpour walked away from an interview when asked to wear a hijab, social media erupted with praise for the journalist. The significance of her refusal was not lost on people across the world.

U.S. Journalist Omid Memarian tweeted:

“Thank you, @amanpour, for standing up to a bully, refusing to wear a headscarf as a precondition 4 an interview w Raisi. It’s appalling that he thinks he can force the repressive mandatory hijab in NYC, when millions are protesting against it in Iran. #MahsaAmini”

Another tweet from human rights activist Hillel Neuer said:

“Bravo, Christiane @Amanpour, for refusing the Iranian regime’s insane demand that you put on a Hijab in New York City as a condition to interview their president, and for your principled solidarity with the women of Iran now being crushed by the regime and their morality police.”

Many others praised Amanpour's decision to withdraw from the interview on the Twitter. Some of these tweets read,

At least 31 people have died since protests erupted in Iran following Amini’s death. Videos of Iranian women cutting their hair and burning their headscarves are making rounds on the internet.