Tehran, Feb 17: A blink-and-miss two-second shot of Iranian women cutting their hair in protest, juxtaposed with an image of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has upset Tehran, forcing their Foreign Minister to cancel his visit to India next month.

 

 

 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was due to travel to India for the Raisina dialogue scheduled for March 3 and 4. The Raisina Dialogue is the flagship think-tank event organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

 

 

 

A promotional video of the Raisina Dialogue was put out about a month ago, announcing the 2023 edition of the event. In the clip, just under two minutes, a two-second shot of Iranian women cutting their hair in protests is shown, along with an image of the Iranian President. This angered the Iranian embassy which was preparing for the visit of Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian to India. Sources said the Iranian embassy reached out to ORF and the MEA, objected to the portrayal of their President and the protesters side-by-side and asked them to delete the sequence. However, the organisers didn’t oblige.

 

Also Read: Renewed Missile attack by Russia on Ukrainian infrastructure 

 

Upset at the turn of events, the Iranian government has informed the organisers that the minister will not be able to travel for the Raisina Dialogue.