You're listening to Comedy Central. Everyone has been talking about the situation in Iran, and if you haven't heard about, ten days ago, a young woman named Massa Amini was arrested by the Morality police for not properly covering her hair, and then she died in their custody. Ever since then, Iranians have been pouring into the streets demanding justice for
her death and freedom for Iran's women. Now, so far, the government has answered the protesters with brutal violence and has shown no signs of reconsidering the law that requires
women to cover their hair. In fact, last week, the President of Iran was scheduled to be interviewed by CNN's Christian Amanpaul in New York, and at the last minute he demanded that she wear a head scarf for the interview, even though the interview was in New York, and when she refused, he straight up to canceled the interview and left just left her looking like she was giving therapy to a ghost. So joining me now to talk about the interview and the situation in Iran is Christian Aman Paul.
Christianity will come to the frost um. Let's jump straight into it. You have interviewed many Iranian presidents, you have never been in a situation like this before where they where they demanded of you that you wear the headscarff not in Iran. But walk me through the situation and also why you chose to not do what the what the president of Iran requested. Well, very briefly, like you know, with my team, we wanted to do this interview and we were going to get the Iranian president's first an
exclusive interview on American soil. And as you know, because New Yorkers, no, it's gridlock at the u N. This is the u N Week and one of the things we like to do is get voices from all over the world, including the Iranian president. So I've done this now many years, and I've always had the first interview with the latest Iranian president and it's never been an issue. There is no law in the United States that requires a journalist to wear a scarf for any interview. Um
and it was never an issue. And by the way, I find out that this guy, he had a breakfast, he had a press conference, and he didn't require anybody to wear a scarf. So you know, come to the evening and it's now eight o'clock. And then they see he's praying and he's resting, and you know, we're gonna do it a little bit later. And suddenly um an aid came and said, um, we would like the president would like you to wear a scarf. I'm like, why,
um No, I don't have to wear a scarf. Anyway, cut to the chase, it is not law, and as a journalist, I made instantaneously a journalistic decision based on the principle that it wasn't law, and be you don't get, you know, strong armed by a foreign government or any government when you're trying to sit and conduct a previously arranged interview. It seems it seems like and I can't tell, thinking that this was most probably um I guess in some way, shape or form, motivated by the timing. You
know you are of Iranian descent. Do you think that there was an element of him not wanting to appear on camera with you for fear of a message that may center a country that's very quickly turning against this dictator. Well,
I think you're you're right. I mean, I don't know that I'm sure, but I do actually believe that he did not want to be seen with a woman who who whose head was uncovered, right at the same time that in his own country there was an uprising on the streets, and in fact a woman had died, a young woman had died because of this um while in
the custody of the morality police. And I would just say that this morality police has been around since, you know, forty plus years of the Islamic Revolution, but under some presidents it's less obvious and less strict, and under some it's much more strict. So this particular president is one of the very hardline variety, and he basically came to power by um making the crackdown on all sorts of social norms, including on women's dress and their activity. That
was the central theme of his campaign. And you know, clearly it's all gone, as we say, pear shaped, because I don't think he expected that something like this would cause the worst uprising in Iran since two thousand nine. It's really interesting and your you know, your audience should know in your viewers that some of the Iranian people are under the age of twenty one. Sixt of Iranian students and university graduates are women. Women have a lot
of power, and they want their full rights. I think they have every right to want that, and across the world that, you know, I think there may be some misconception, some se this as these women completely going up against Islam, when in fact it's not that. What they're saying is they have nothing against anybody practicing a religion or anyone, you know, dressing the way their religion requires their Their qualm seems to be about the government forcing people to
do it should they not wish to. Is that correct? Look, that is correct. The fact of the matter is that it is uh the law, at least the social law. I don't know it's written in the you know, the legal the legal books, but it is the social and religious law, and it has been since the beginning of
the revolution, which happened in nineteen nine. But interestingly, Trevor, you know, the women came out in the streets back then forty plus years ago to also call for a change of regime, but they were not wearing head scarves, and there was no question at that time where the beginning of head scarves being compulsory. I know women who went into the streets at that time, including members of my own family who wanted to get rid of one monarchy for what they thought was going to be democracy.
Then very shortly thereafter I told Hamdi said, oh no, actually, you women you need to be you know, veiled. And that has been a bubbling cauldron for the last many many years. I had a wonderful woman on my show tonight, married John Satrapi. If any of you know the graphic novel novel Persepolis, which she wrote about her childhood, she basically said this, Look, the people of Iran wanted democracy. The minute you take off the veil, you know, their
dictatorship will go. So the regime is not going to allow that. But she said, she put it this way, it's only to keep men's eyes off women. So if they're so corny, she said, and they're so unable to control themselves, well maybe they should take a cold shower or look somewhere else. And that's the bottom line. And I'm you know, sorry to solve even in your country, Trevor, even in the United States with this law that has you know, banned, the ability for women to make their
own choice is about their own bodies. It's something incredibly important that we have to you know, keep an eye on and that in that moment, I was not as a journalist or as a woman going to put a headscarf on and somehow bind myself in some kind of you know. Well, as always, I appreciate you taking the time to join us on the show. Um, I appreciate you. You know, I've I've grown up watching you cover all of these stories and and as always I appreciate the
work that you do out there. Thank you so much for joining us on the Daily Show. Once again, Thank you. Be sure to watch Christians. I'm on a Poor Show. Its is on CNN I, which is weekdays on PBS in the United States. Watch The Daily Show weeknights and Central Armed Comedy Central in stream full episodes anytime. I'm on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast