The Lesley Stahl Interview | 06/23/2009 2:55 pm
The Lesley Stahl Interview: Christiane Amanpour, at the Height of the Iranian Election Crisis

Editor’s Note: CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour joined Lesley Stahl this morning for a wOw exclusive interview, in which these incredible journalists cover topics ranging from reporting on the crisis in Iran to the counterintuitively dominant role of women there to Christiane’s Iranian upbringing with her "accidental refugee" family. Read on.
LESLEY STAHL: Christiane, thank you so much for joining us this
morning. I understand that you were in Iran and basically got thrown
out. Is that true?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Well, look, the way it works is the Iranian
officials give you a work permit. It usually lasts either a week or ten
days. So I stayed for about ten days and I was asked to leave as it
expired. You know, obviously CNN is a very visible, very sensitive news
organization over there. So it’s closely monitoring, you know,
everything we do and everything we say. And you probably noticed, in
the last week or so, our correspondent on the ground has been banished
from reporting, and also the government there, the foreign ministry
there yesterday held a government-sponsored press conference accusing
CNN and the BBC and others of promoting unrest. And this was obviously
something that we at the network reject categorically. But it doesn’t
offer restrictions on what we’re able to do.
LESLEY: Well obviously you’re watching the situation. You’re in London right now. I want to know your read. It’s the morning of Tuesday, June 23. What’s your read of what you’re seeing right now? Is this thing fizzling out in your opinion?
CHRISTIANE: Well, look, I’m not going to make a judgment … because you never know what could happen and what could spark anything. And as a reporter I prefer to just tell you what we saw. What we saw was extraordinary – unprecedented in 30 years. A lot of my reporting, which I’ve done over the years, suggests that the young people in Iran really do want their voice to be heard. And the truth of the matter is, this did not start as an attempt at revolution. In fact, many people in the West who would like to see regime change, including your own United States government, have always been frustrated and wondered what it is. Why is it that the people of Iran rise up against their government? The truth is, the so-called Green Movement, the Mousavi Movement, was all about reform from within. Mousavi himself is one of the establishment, a longtime revolutionary who was prime minister during some of the most difficult years during the Iran-Iraq war. I think that he is simply the vehicle for the young people’s frustration, for their desire for freedom, for their desire for reform. And who knows where it’s going to end? But if you compare it to the revolution in 1979, they had a leader. His name was Ayatollah Khomeini. He was exiled and he led the revolution from outside, and he tapped into what was a popular revolt. This right now is not that, at this precise moment.
LESLEY: What about the women? I am so struck by how the face of this current movement, more than any other factor, is dominated by women. Obviously this young girl who was killed, Neda Soltani, but also Mousavi’s wife, who campaigned with him, is a major figure, and was a university chancellor at some point. Even Rafsanjani’s daughter, who was arrested. How big is the women’s movement, first of all, in Iran? And how much of a factor have they been in keeping this going?
























22 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Christiane and Lesley… two magificent women who tell it like it is. A few weeks back, I watched Ann Curry in Iran. ( pre election). Many things I found interesting. First, so many of the youth not only spoke English but were fluent. How so? Yo develop fluency in any language calls for much dialogue. Also, it was so clear then, their voices were filled with agitation and wanting to be heard…. and for good reason.
The young woman who was so senselessly killed was taking singing lessons underground. Women are not allowed to sing in public. One young couple interviewed by Ann spoke of how they were not allowed to hold hands in public, yet as the cameras rolled, there were many young lovers seated in parks and just strollling.. hand in hand.
It was so obvious there was much discontent before the June 12 election. The election was the vehicle needed to spark their outrage on many fronts. The Iranian regime is nuts to try to kill their voices on Tweeter and Facebook. They know how to get around it. One British tech said, " One out of 3 of the best techs in Silicone Valley is Iranian."
Dawn: Re: your last sentence: We have to do both. We are all in this together––even those tiny little islands that we forget are there and yet may have one of the thousands of bases we have situated all over the world. We are ONE as the that song told us years ago.
Interesting interview. C A is one of the best and we are mighty lucky to have her.
Christiane Amanpour is a such a remarkable, valuable and refreshing reporter. The only disagreement I have with her is that there is, indeed, another place for in depth reporting on TV and that is The Newshour. Every day they have balanced, in depth discussions.
Michelle Mehlhorn
I’ve always had deep respect for Christiane Amanpour. If listening to or watching the news and I hear her name, I stop and listen/watch everytime.
I am firmly in the camp of wishing all journalists kept their opinions to themselves. It’s called the "news", not the opinion hour - just tell me what I need to know so I can form my own opinion.
This may sound cynical, but I think there are a great number of people who have stopped thinking for themselves, simply because there are so many people in the media willing to do it for them.
I’m not sure where and when it changed along the way, but I’m sorry to see it so.