Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran‘s Foreign Minister, has canceled a trip to India slated for next month due to a controversial clip in a promotional video for a regional meeting.
The Iranian minister was supposed to attend the Raisina Dialogue, a geopolitical conference, on March 3 and 4, but he canceled his trip because the organizer refused to remove a video clip showing Iranian women cutting their hair in protest.
The video juxtaposes the protestors with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
The Raisina Dialogue is hosted by the think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs of India to discuss regional matters.
Reports said the promotional video of the moot was released a month ago. The video has less than a two-second shot of an Iranian women’s protest. The Iranian embassy had requested ORF and India’s foreign ministry to delete the clip but they declined it.
As a result, the Iranian government has reportedly informed the organizers that Amir-Abdollahian will not attend the dialogue.