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The Amanpour Hour

Interview with Iranian Lawyer and Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi; Interview with Former Special Envoy to Iran and Venezuela Elliott Abrams; Greenlanders on Edge as Trump Teases U.S. Takeover; Interview with "The Voice of Hind Rajab" Director Kaouther Ben Hania. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired January 17, 2026 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:40

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone, and welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR. Here's where we're headed this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Iran at a crossroads.

After a crackdown on nationwide protests, I spoke to Shirin Ebadi, Iranian lawyer, women's rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Then what does President Trump plan to do next. I ask his special Iran envoy from 1.0, Elliott Abrams.

ELLIOTT ABRAMS, FORMER SPECIAL ENVOY TO IRAN: I think the question is, are there ways of weakening the regime and its security forces?

And from my archive, looking back at the long fight by Iranian women to be treated as more than second class citizens.

Also in the program, amid talk of intervention in Greenland, a special report from Nuuk. Are they ready for an American takeover?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Does Donald Trump understand Greenland?

MIA CHEMNITZ, FASHION DESIGNER: I'm afraid that he understands everything and that he doesn't care.

AMANPOUR: Then --

The new film shattering audiences, a movie about a young girl's final hours using her own voice before she was killed in Gaza. I speak to the director.

KAOUTHER BEN HANIA, DIRECTOR, "THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB": This is not a story. This is history. We can't afford to look away.

(END VIDEOTAPE) AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.

And all eyes have been on Iran. Protesters have been fighting for a new future and paying in blood. Thousands are dead according to a U.S. based rights group. All week, horrifying images emerged from Iran like this, one of bodies piling up outside a morgue.

The true toll could still be higher. Information is limited by an Internet and communications blackout for the past ten days.

The protests began late December in Tehran's bazaars over the government's handling of the economy. Seeing their currency collapse and cost of living soar, They quickly swelled to more than 180 cities and towns, becoming a general protest against the regime.

The regime organized pro-government rallies and state TV showed funerals for security forces who've been killed.

Here's what the Iranian foreign minister told Fox News late this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINITERS: For ten days, it was peaceful, legal demonstrations and protests for economic shortcomings.

But after that ten days, for three days, we had completely different story. A terrorist operation when terrorist elements led from outside, you know, entered this, you know, protests. They wanted to increase the number of deaths.

Why? Because President Trump has said that if there are killings, he would intervene. And they wanted to drag him into this conflict. And that was exactly an Israeli plot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Indeed, President Trump did tell protesters that help is on the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And by the way, to all Iranian patriots, keep protesting, take over your institutions if possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: But by the end of the week, he appears to have backed off any military action for now, perhaps after Iran said the protests had ended and the regime would not execute anyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARAGHCHI: You know, I can tell you that I'm confident about that. There is no plan for hanging at all. (END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So has this uprising been crushed and what comes next? I asked Iranian lawyer and former judge Shirin Ebadi. She's the country's first ever Nobel Peace Prize winner for her work promoting democracy and human rights there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Shirin Ebadi, welcome back to our program.

So, we've talked many times when there have been uprisings. I want to know what you think of this one in terms of the history of modern Iran and the uprisings there.

SHIRIN EBADI, IRANIAN HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER AND NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE (through translator): What has happened in Iran is a tragedy, and the number of those killed is far more than those killed in the previous unrests. And I'm very saddened to see the world has shut its eyes to the killing of our young people.

[11:04:45]

AMANPOUR: Why do you say shut its eyes? This is top news all over the world. Even President Trump threatened to go to the rescue, the help of the protesters, if the killing continued. It's very much in the spotlight around the world.

EBADI (through translator): They don't see the real picture of what is happening in Iran. They see a much milder version of what is happening.

And the people's requests and demands have been ignored. We have urged Europe to expel their ambassadors from Iran, to downgrade their diplomatic relations from Iran, from ambassadorial to charge d'affaires level.

We cannot deal with a regime that is armed to the teeth. We urge the West for help. For five days, there's been an Internet blackout. We have asked them, just as the Iranian regime has managed to impose an Internet blackout so that the Iranian people cannot access the outside world.

We urge you, why can you not do the same thing? And why can you not shut down the Iranian telecommunication towers? Please shut down the Iranian media, state media.

Do not allow the voice of the government to be heard outside their propaganda and their mendacious reports to reach the outside world.

AMANPOUR: Do you think that President Trump was right to promise to help the protesters and then seeming to agree with what he said he's been told, that the killings have stopped, that there will be no hangings, and we don't know if military action is still on the table?

Do you think Iran should be liberated, in your view, by external action, like military action, either from America or from Israel?

EBADI (through translator): No, we are against military strikes against Iran because that will just lead to the killing of more people. But the people have urged on so many occasions, just as they managed to target Ismail Haniyeh and kill him in one spot, why can you not have the same targeted assassination against the Supreme Leader of Iran and the current commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.

AMANPOUR: You remember, obviously, in June, when the Israelis attacked by air and the United States attacked by air, certainly the Israelis took out a lot of the people that you're talking about, the, you know, Revolutionary Guards leaders, various security leaders.

Do you remember -- can you cast your mind back to 1979, around this time, when the Shah's forces were under protest and uprising from people on the streets? What was the difference, do you think? Did the Shah use that much violence? He left, of course, he left the country, and Ayatollah Khomeini came back.

EBADI (through translator): I remember very well the 1979 revolution. And unfortunately, I was also one of those who protested against the Shah of Iran at the time.

And since then, I have apologized to the Iranian people, especially to the young people, saying we made a mistake.

But I remember very well that in the 1979 revolution, the number of the protesters killed, well, not even one-thousandth of those killed by the current regime. Such brutality had never been seen in Iran.

Unfortunately, we were deceived by two issues. First, because at the time, they had promised us democracy. But we didn't know at the time that the person who was promising us a democracy didn't even know what democracy meant.

And it's only when he arrived in Iran we realized we were also deceived by religious promises. We thought a religious person is not going to lie.

[11:09:48]

EBADI (through translator): I want to add one thing. In 1979, I believe that the Iranian people had unfortunately decided to throw themselves into a well. And now, we've decided to emerge from that well and come out of that. And I promise you, one day we will come out of this. We will.

AMANPOUR: Shirin Ebadi, thank you very much for joining us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And straight ahead, the special representative for both Iran and Venezuela during Trump's first term. He tells me how he thinks the administration should weaken Iran at this critical juncture. That's after the break. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABRAMS: We should show more than just verbal support for the Iranian people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:10:38]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

While the world watches Tehran with one eye, the other must be on what the Trump administration will do next. If military action is on hold for now, what's Trump's real objective after removing the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro from power, was he gunning for regime change in Iran, too?

Elliott Abrams, Trump's former special envoy for Iran and Venezuela, told me what he thinks the presidents next move should be.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABRAMS: Well, I think he should act. I think he has to now. But yes, I think we should show more than just verbal support for the Iranian people.

Just saying, you know, the world is watching or something like that doesn't help them. So, what would? I think that doing something like hitting missile sites or nuclear sites today doesn't help them. I would hope he would look at, for example, cyber options that actually hurt the regime and its ability to suppress the Iranian people.

AMANPOUR: So, do you not think that they should -- because it's very difficult to pass. Obviously, they're not going to tell us what they're going to do, if anything. But some are thinking about missile strikes or, you know, the kind of thing that he did around Venezuela before actually abducting the president there, you know, hitting the boats, et cetera.

ABRAMS: Well, the equivalent would be, if there are reasonable targets, hitting, for example, Revolutionary Guard headquarters, sites that are actually used in the suppression of demonstrations. If we have such targets, then they are a reasonable action for the president to take.

AMANPOUR: You've been covering, watching, dealing with the Iran file, so to speak, for many, many decades. What is your assessment? Because I know everybody, whether it's in the U.S. government, in the Israeli government, in the diaspora, wherever there is, every time there is an uprising, and I've covered many of them, people immediately say, this is it, the regime is about to fall. Do you see a difference this time?

ABRAMS: I see a difference in that it didn't start with students at universities, it started with bazaaris. It started with middle-class people and then spread, A.

B, it's really all over the country.

And C, there is a new focus on Reza Pahlavi, a figure who didn't appear in the past.

But I would say what I think we have not seen yet, I've certainly not been privy to it, is any breaking up of the security forces. I don't see yet disloyalty. I don't see security forces refusing to follow orders. Maybe that's happening and they're covering it up. But that would be a critical ingredient if the regime is really going to start falling.

AMANPOUR: The regime has said that more than 100 security forces have been killed and they've shown what they call the funerals of martyrs on the state television.

So, they are admitting that those security forces have also been killed, as well as, obviously, hundreds if not thousands of protesters.

You know, as well as I do, the history of American intervention, involvement, coups in Iran, not to mention deposing Mossadegh for the oil, if you remember, along with the Brits during the height of the Cold War in the early 50s, and bringing back the Shah.

That led to a whole load of backlash that eventually culminated with the '79 revolution that brought the Ayatollahs.

Is there a risk for the United States in trying to manage any kind of intervention, much less if Israel's involved? Is there a risk that this could all backfire?

ABRAMS: There's always a risk, but I don't think it's a very great one because I think in past decades the regime had nationalism in its favor. It doesn't anymore.

The people of Iran, the great majority, appear to have reached the conclusion that this regime is ruining the country, that their support for Hezbollah and Hamas, that their nuclear program has wasted tons of money that Iran really does not have, that has created an enemy relationship with the United States and with Israel that they don't need to have.

So, I think a lot of people thought last year after the Israeli and American attacks, oh, the Iranians are going to rise up in nationalist fervor.

[11:19:51]

ABRAMS: They didn't. Nationalism now works against the regime.

AMANPOUR: And to be fair, all those things you say, you know, may be true, but the thing that really sparked this one was their quality of life, the poverty they're being plunged into, partly because of maximum pressure that you've all engineered, but also because of total mismanagement by this regime. They want a decent living.

This is what Iran expert Suzanne Maloney wrote. "Faced with a well- entrenched and ideologically-committed regime, Mr. Trump has no Venezuela option, no limited operation that removes a malignant leader, leaving a newly-compliant power structure that maintains some semblance of order.

So, A, do you agree that there's no Venezuela option?

And, B, do you -- have you heard, like some analysts are saying, that perhaps the Trump administration is actually trying to make a deal with the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps?

ABRAMS: Well, there is no snatch-and-grab option in Tehran. That's correct. The president this week ruled out negotiations until all of this violence stops.

I certainly hope that if it stops, if the regime's still in place, he doesn't immediately start negotiations that will end up actually strengthening the regime. And, in that sense, forgetting about or even rewarding them for the massive violence against the people of Iran.

I do think we have options for weakening the regime. For example, using naval power and air power to prevent them from continuing to violate our sanctions on the export of Iranian oil. We did a lot of that in the Trump first term.

And in the last four or five years, there's been less enforcement, and a lot more oil has been getting out and going primarily to China. We can stop that. We can certainly try to stop that.

That's a medium-term thing. That's not going to affect today's demonstrations. There, I think the question is, are there ways of weakening the regime and its security forces?

AMANPOUR: Elliot Abrams, thank you very much indeed for joining us.

ABRAMS: Thank you, Christiane.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: After a break, so much talk of intervention from a president who pledged to end wars, not start them. Next, a report from Greenland where people fear for their future now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is the worst-case scenario that, you know, in a month I'm American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:22:16]

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AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

Now, quote, "Anything less than U.S. control of Greenland is unacceptable," says President Trump. European leaders are rallying to head that off. And Greenland and Denmark's foreign ministers went to Washington to explain their red line, which is, Greenland is not for sale or for swallowing up.

Still, Greenlanders worry about an American takeover.

CNN's Nic Robertson went there to speak to them himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: It's 11:00 a.m. Daybreak off the coast of Greenland, the strategic Danish island President Trump wants for American security. 150 miles from the Arctic Circle, it is a winter wonderland of stark, snowy beauty.

Out here in these remote fields, it seems impossible to imagine that this tranquil Arctic wilderness could really be at the heart of a geopolitical crisis that has the United States pitted against its NATO allies, potentially threatening to upend decades of global security.

Aron Josvassen (ph), an Inuit, a native Greenlander, is taking a seal hunting. Food from the land and sea is a core Inuit connection with nature, a cultural totem.

So I know we're waiting for the seal, looking out for the seal but Donald Trump says there's Russian and Chinese ships here. Where are they?

ARON JOSVASSEN, NATIVE GREENLANDER: There's no ship from China or Russia.

ROBERTSON: Donald Trump says that it's not enough just to be friends with Greenland and have a treaty, that he has to own it. What do you say?

JOSVASSEN: I'm afraid the nature will be destroyed and many animals will disappear.

ROBERTSON: Greenland is massive, more than 1,600 miles from Arctic tip to Atlantic tail, so wide it straddles several time zones. It is also geographically strategic, sits right between the U.S. and Russia, adjacent to newly-thawing polar shipping lanes.

But despite its size, barely 57,000 people live on the ice-shrouded island, most of them, like Aron, Inuit.

SARA OLSVIG, CHAIR, INUIT CIRCUMPOLAR COUNCIL: Inuit have been here in Greenland for 4,500 years at least, maybe longer.

ROBERTSON: Sarah Olsvig is also Inuit, a former Greenland politician in the Danish parliament, stands up for Inuit rights.

ROBERTSON: But President Trump now says that he has to own Greenland, that's the only way psychologically that he thinks that the deal will be right.

OLSVIG: If the case is so that he really thinks that Greenland is so important for the U.S., well then, there's something to talk about. And let's solve it through dialog.

[11:29:52]

ROBERTSON: Is there a dignified dialog right now?

OLSVIG: I think we are far from what we would call a dignified dialog. I think that's obvious.

ROBERTSON: Inuit are traditionally quiet, but what they say now will be the single biggest factor facing a Trump takeover.

Mia Chemnitz is a successful businesswoman, has been silent until now.

ROBERTSON: Does Donald Trump understand Greenland?

CHEMNITZ: I'm afraid that he understands everything and that he doesn't care.

ROBERTSON: She specializes in Inuit clothing. But she's got orders to fill, so she's taking us to her workshop.

CHEMNITZ: Donald Trump and his government, they are very welcome to invest in Greenland. We're always looking for investments. We want to develop. I don't think it's about that.

ROBERTSON: What's it about?

CHEMNITZ: I think it's about land.

ROBERTSON: Donald Trump wants a big country?

CHEMNITZ: I'm afraid so, yes.

ROBERTSON: Inside her tiny workshop, they're busy, ready to hire more staff. Items like seal mitts, jackets and trousers making a comeback. Exports possible because the animals are hunted for food, as well as the hides.

But Trump's Greenland grab is crimping her business, putting her own expansion plans on hold.

CHEMNITZ: Well, if you don't know which country you're living in, in a month, then, you know.

ROBERTSON: Is that real for you right now?

CHEMNITZ: No, I don't want it to be real. I really try to push that thought down. But that is the worst-case scenario that, you know, in a month I'm American.

We don't even have military in Greenland because we don't do war. We wouldn't be able to resist the American military. No one can resist the American military.

ROBERTSON: Trump isn't the first president to try to get Greenland. The U.S. tried shortly after buying Alaska from Russia more than 150 years ago, tried again in 1910.

And then, after World War II, U.S. President Harry Truman secretly offered Denmark $100 million in gold. This time, Donald Trump seems determined to have it his way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And coming up --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

F1: I was scared to death while I was doing this movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: How one Palestinian child's desperate cries for help captured world attention. I speak to the director of "The Voice of Hind Rajab" after a break.

[11:32:19]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

In Gaza, death and destruction continue to be part of everyday life and no one is safe. UNICEF says a hundred children have been killed since October. That's roughly one child a day since the ceasefire began. And it comes after more than 20,000 children were killed under two years of Israeli bombardment.

Now, a powerful new film is inviting audiences to bear witness. It's hard to forget the heart-wrenching sounds of one little girl's call for help back in 2024. "The Voice Of Hind Rajab" weaves that real audio into a dramatized account of the mission to try to save her.

Here's part of the trailer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name?

HIND RAJAB, PALESTINIAN GIRL: Hind Rajab Hamada.

Please don't leave me. I'm all alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mahdi, I need an ambulance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to guarantee a safe route.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She doesn't have time.

RAJAB: The tanks are here. They're shooting at me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See all those people? We've lost them all. Without coordination, those 8 minutes can cost them their lives, Omar.

RAJAB: Please come.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are shooting at a car with a little girl inside. Can you imagine that? So do something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: For its part, Israel has not accepted responsibility for the killing of Hind Rajab. The film won the Silver Lion Award and a 23- minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. And it is short listed for an Oscar.

I spoke to director, Kaouther Ben Hania.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: You know, many people have seen it and written that it's almost impossible to watch this. How do you feel about that given that you're trying to make people watch it and see it and understand?

HANIA: I know that many people have fears. I was scared to death while I was doing this movie, but I think it's important to watch it. Why? Because this is not a story, this is history. We can't afford to look away.

And I often tell people who tell me it's hard. I don't know if I can handle it. I tell them it's not your life, thanks God. So, bear witness. And if it's really hard, do something about it.

AMANPOUR: So, tell me, you're Tunisian. You were in the middle of doing another movie when you heard this audio that was posted and that it shocked so many people around the world. What did you think when you heard it? You're talking about having to bear witness.

[11:39:49]

HANIA: You know the first millisecond I was thinking, she was asking me to save her, you know, which wasn't fresh (ph). But her voice was so alive, so immediate that the feeling I had when I understood the situation was unbearable. You know hearing a child pleading for life and I was -- I felt helpless and I hate it when I feel helpless.

So, I asked myself, what can I do? I'm a filmmaker, you know, I can do -- I can give a space of this -- for this little girl to be remembered and to be heard, you know, because hearing her voice on social media wasn't, you know, the right place to remember.

AMANPOUR: Tell me a little bit so that our audience fully understands. This happened in 2024. Israel was bombing in response to the horrendous attack by Hamas on October 7th, the year before.

And she -- why was she in this car? How was she able to call out? What was her situation at that moment where you're describing in this film?

HANIA: Yes. That day the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of Tel al-Hawa neighborhood. So, her mother -- it was raining. We are in January 2024. And her mother wanted to protect her, so she put her in a car with her uncle, aunt and four cousins to flee, you know, the area.

They were shot at, like, 500 meters away from home. All of them were killed except Layan and her cousin -- Layan, her name, the cousin of Hind.

And -- so she was -- the Red Crescent people called the phone and they talked to Layan. And we know this is a very famous, you know, recording piece that was all over the Internet. Layan was killed on the phone with the Red Crescent people.

AMANPOUR: So, let us play the first clip that we have, and this is where the medics from Ramallah, Red Crescent are speaking to Hind in the car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What's your name?

RAJAB (through translator): There's no one with me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What's your name?

RAJAB (through translator): There's no one with me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I can't hear your name. I'm Omar. What's your name?

RAJAB (through translator): My name is Hanood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What's your name?

RAJAB (through translator): Hanood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Hanood? And your sister's name?

RAJAB (through translator): Come get me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Where's your sister?

RAJAB (through translator): Come get me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I will, but where's your sister?

RAJAB (through translator): I don't have one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Now, this is Hind Rajab's voice.

HANIA: Yes. AMANPOUR: Your film is called that, it is that. It is extraordinary. I don't know whether there are other films, feature films, because this is not a documentary, but all of these others are actors.

HANIA: Yes.

AMANPOUR: But Hind's voice is her voice. Tell me about that. Why did you just not do a documentary? What was the -- what was the artistic and historical witness you wanted to bear using that format?

HANIA: Yes. I have to mention that what the actors are saying is word by word what the real person said in those recordings.

So, I needed to be very faithful and close to those recordings. I thought about doing a documentary in the beginning because I'm a documentary filmmaker.

But I thought that maybe cinema can do something better than explaining. We are done explaining at some point, you know. Cinema can provoke empathy. We can be with those incredible heroes trying to save lives in a very, very difficult condition.

And I needed to be with them, you know, to hear Hind's voice, because they are the ones who listen. They are the ones who tried and did everything and paid a heavy price, actually.

AMANPOUR: Very quickly about the response, because it's been really critically acclaimed and received. We saw images of, what was it, a 23-minute standing ovation at the premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

You know, executive producers like Brad Pitt, Alfonso Cuaron, Jonathan Glazer. But, as almost all Palestinian films, it has struggled to get a U.S. distribution. What does that say to you? And have you made any inroads since this to get it?

HANIA: Yes. I mean, thanks God the movie is distributed right now in the United States. It was very hard because another movie about another subject with all this praise at Venice Film Festival. We won the -- you know, the Silver Lion. And you expect it to be distributed by a huge distributor.

It wasn't the case. But I knew it. It will be a fight, you know. And thanks God the movie is being distributed in a small scale, but people are coming to watch it.

[11:44:48]

AMANPOUR: Well, good luck to you. It's an incredible story, and you've done it in the most amazing and powerful way.

HANIA: Thank you.

AMANPOUR: Thank you. Kaouther Ben Hania, thank you very much.

HANIA: Thank you. (END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And "The Voice of Hind Rajab" is out now in the U.S., the U.K., France, Spain and the Middle East.

Coming up after a break, the protests that rocked Iran reminded me of covering the so-called Green Revolution in 2009.

From my archive, Iranian women's long struggle for freedom.

[11:45:15]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

Now, earlier this program, we've discussed the crucial role women have played in Iran's protest movements. For many decades, they've bravely rallied in opposition to the rules imposed upon them by the Islamic regime and demanded to be treated as more than second class citizens. Over decades covering Iran, I focused a lot on the struggle for women's rights.

So from my archives, we visit some of those women who were pushing for more freedoms even 20 years ago and before that. Here we are in Tehran during the 2005 election.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Golshifteh Farahani is 21 years old. She's been an actress since she was 14 and rarely out of work. Iran has a thriving film industry, and her movies pack the cinemas and reap awards.

GOLSHIFTEH FARAHANI, ACTRESS: I like to work in Iran. I like it because I think it makes me more creative. Because of this, you know.

AMANPOUR: She's trying to say pressures and limitations -- political, religious and social -- that force everyone here, especially the women, into subtle forms of self-expression.

Her latest film was released this week, but Golshifteh knows that her career flourishes at the pleasure of the authorities. Like many Iranian women, she hopes their next president will give women more rights, especially legal rights.

FARAHANI: I think the problem is it's not only the government and the, you know, system that doesn't give enough right for the women. Even the women themselves, they don't give, they don't know their rights. They don't know it. So I think that's the real problem.

AMANPOUR: But women's rights advocates point out that all the women who tried to register as candidates for this presidential election were disqualified by the Guardian Council, which vets all contenders.

And this week, groups of professional women and students held their first public demonstration since the veil was made obligatory 26 years ago.

This time, they're demanding their next president improve women's status. Authorities allow women to wear ever tighter overcoats, show ever more hair and makeup, and they tolerate women like Laleh Sadr competing in car races. But she, too believes that women should pursue their rights more.

LALEH SADR, CAR RACER: If they ask for their rights, for sure, they will -- they will achieve it. And I hope so.

AMANPOUR: Do you think it's that easy by.

SADR: For sure, no. But they must try if they want to be successful in everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you remember some colors that we talked about?

AMANPOUR: For now, though, many Iranian women seem more interested in improving their daily lives rather than risking them on political activism. At this all-female English school in Tehran, students are hoping a new language will improve their job opportunities or even be their ticket out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love my job. I'm an architect and nowadays we need to learn English because of our jobs to improve yourself. And also I have a plan to immigrate to Canada, so I need it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to go to United States because my husband's family are living there.

AMANPOUR: As each shift rotates through this school, Friday's election is on the mind of the students. Women who have always turned out to the polls wonder this time will they vote?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I will because I love my country and it's my right to participate in what belongs to me.

AMANPOUR: But still, they ask, will it make a difference?

Christiane Amanpour, CNN -- Tehran, Iran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Now the actress Golshifteh, who we started talking to in that report, her hopes dashed by the victory then of the hardline conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, like many female artists, would ultimately leave Iran. She was not allowed back after shooting the Ridley Scott film "Body of Lies" back in 2008.

However, now you'll see so many Iranian women just walking around and going about their daily business with no hijabs. This has been them seizing that right after the death of Mahsa Amini for apparently failing to wear her headscarf well enough while she was in custody by the Iranian police.

Now, when we come back, they're the brave group of Buddhist monks walking from Texas to Washington, D.C., spreading peace one step at a time.

[11:54:46]

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AMANPOUR: And finally this hour, the antidote to all the violence and division in the world. Now a small group of Buddhist monks and their trusty canine companion are making their way from Texas to Washington, D.C., on foot. And with each step of their 2,000-mile route, the walk for peace is gaining global momentum.

[11:59:50]

AMANPOUR: Large crowds are lining the streets and millions more are following online to hear the monks reflect on unity, healing and compassion as they travel state to state.

Since October, they confronted cold and rainy weather, injury and exhaustion, and yet they keep going. The monks are currently in North Carolina and they aim to make it to the nation's capital sometime next month, planting connection with each step.

That's all we have time for, though. Don't forget you can find all of our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/audio and on all other major platforms.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching and I'll see you again next week.