Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi refused an interview with CNN at the last minute because the famous journalist Christiane Amanpour refused to wear the veil. The same journalist and war correspondent – of Iranian origin – told the story that she should have interviewed the Iranian leader. “I believe – explained the reporter – that he does not want to be seen with a woman without a veil when protests are raging in his country” for the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old who died after being arrested by the moral police in Tehran because she did not she wore the veil correctly.
Just two days ago, the Iranian leader, speaking to the UN, accused the West of using “double standards” when speaking about women’s rights in different countries. And he said it just when his government was facing strong protests over the death of a young woman arrested for wearing the veil in a way that did not comply with the rules in force.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Raisi did not directly address the issue of the crisis, but attacked those who criticize the situation in his country. “The Islamic Republic of Iran rejects the double standards of some governments in terms of human rights,” said the president, who cited the accusations against Iran in particular, comparing them to the indifference about the death of “dozens of innocent women” in a Western state which he did not name or the discovery of the bodies of indigenous women in Canada. Raisi also referred to the women killed by Islamic State (IS) terrorists, the oppression of the Palestinian people or “those who seek freedom and asylum only to see their children locked in cages”, in what appeared to be a reference to the immigration detention in the United States.
“As long as there are these two weights and two measures, and the attention is focused on one part and not all, we will not have true justice,” he insisted. And he concluded «Iran uses effective methods to protect human rights on the basis of its” spiritual values ”».