Iran’s president cancels interview after anchor declines hijab request

Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s Chief International Anchor, tweeted Thursday that an interview between her and Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi was abruptly canceled when she declined to wear a hijab.

“We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves,” she said.

The interview would have been Raisi’s first on American soil and was going to take place amid the ongoing protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini—a 22-year-old who was arrested by the country’s morality police for not completely covering her head with a hijab.