CNN reporter Christiana Amanpour pulled out of a scheduled interview with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi while he was in New York City to attend the United Nations General Session because his aides demanded she wear a headscarf in his presence, NBC News reports.

Amanpour wanted to question Raisi about the ongoing domestic unrest in Iran as crowds protest the death of a 22-year-old woman who died while in the custody of the country’s morality police, reportedly for not properly covering her hair.

The CNN crew was finished setting up the room in a New York hotel for the interview.  Forty minutes after Raisi had been scheduled to arrive, an aide approached Amanpour “suggesting” she wear a headscarf in recognition of the Islamic holy months of Muharram and Safar. 

“I politely declined,” Amanpour wrote. “We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves. I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I have interviewed them outside Iran.  The aide made it clear that the interview would not happen if I did not wear a headscarf,” she posted on Twitter. “He said it was ‘a matter of respect,’ and referred to ‘the situation in Iran’ — alluding to the protests sweeping the country.”

At that point, Amanpour canceled the interview.  “As protests continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi,” she tweeted.