No hijab, no interview. Famous CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour refused to wear the veil for a meeting in New York with the conservative Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, sparking the reaction of the Tehran leader who promptly canceled the face-to-face.
This was told by the reporter herself, of Iranian origin, while demonstrations have been taking place in the country for days to report the death of Mahsa Amini , the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died while she was in the custody of the moral police for not wearing the Islamic veil correctly.
"I think Raisi does not want to be seen with a woman without a veil at a time when protests are raging in his country", explained Amanpour herself on her Twitter account. "And so we left. The interview did not take place. With protests continuing in Iran and people being killed, it would have been an important time to speak with President Raisi," wrote the journalist, who published the photo showing her without a headdress next to the empty chair in the place where the interview should have been held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
THE PREVIOUS - A courageous and provocative gesture reminiscent of that of Oriana Fallaci who in 1979, at the end of an interview with Ayatollah Khomeini, irritatedly took off her veil. Shortly before the head of the Islamic revolution had told her that "the Islamic dress is for young and respectable women", sparking the indignation of the reporter who defined the scarf as a " stupid rag from the Middle Ages ".
THE PROTESTS - The demonstrations, in over thirty cities, aim to break the taboo, with women who want to finally carve out their own political space , expressing their anger with strong symbolic actions, such as those of setting fire to veils and images of religious leaders or to cut their hair. But the cost in terms of human lives is very high : according to the NGO Iran Human Rights (Ihr) based in Oslo, at least 31 civilians have been killed by the repression, while state television has released another budget talking about 17 deaths among protesters and policemen. Hundreds of wounded and mass arrests.
The protests have received the acclaim of the Western chancelleries starting with the United States, which has decided to impose sanctions on the Iranian moral police. The German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also harshly denounced "the brutal attack against courageous women" that they have been demonstrating for several days, seeing in the repression of the demonstrations "an attack against humanity".
According to Tehran , the rallies are incited by a foreign enemy with the help of intelligence agencies and embassies.
Meanwhile, while the Iranian regime blocked access to Instagram and WhatsApp, Amini's father accused the authorities of lying about the woman's death, revealing that when he saw his daughter's body before the funeral it was completely wrapped in a cloth, except the bruised face and feet: "I have no idea what they did to her."
(Unioneonline / vl)
