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The Amanpour Hour
Interview With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Interview With Conservative Evangelical Pastor Bob Roberts, Jr.; Violence Surging In The West Bank; Interview With "Pachinko" And "American Hagwon" Author Min Jin Lee; Assaults In College Campuses A Pervasive Crisis. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired October 24, 2026 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:00:38]
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, and welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR.
Here's where we're headed this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Our land is very important because it's about people. It's not about kilometers.
AMANPOUR: Fighting for their lives. Ukrainians under bombardment and abandoned by Trump President Zelenskyy tells me why there is still hope for his relationship with America and what his country needs to survive.
Then --
PASTOR BOB ROBERTS JR., CO-FOUNDER, MULTI-FAITH NEIGHBORS NETWORK: As a Christian, it is the Bible that holds us together. as a nation, it is the constitution that holds us together. And that's critical.
AMANPOUR: Keeping politics and polarization out of the pews, the faith leaders building bridges ahead of the midterms. I speak to one evangelical pastor about his partnership with a Muslim imam, how to heal America.
Plus --
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: As we're driving through the town, I mean, it's like every 20 seconds or so, Bashar is stopping to point out yet another place where a settler attack took place.
AMANPOUR: Palestinians under attack with settler violence surging again in the Occupied West Bank. How the Israeli administration has turned a blind eye for years.
Then "American Hagwon", a new, sweeping epic of immigrant dreams from "Pachinko" author Min Jin Lee. MIN JIN LEE, AUTHOR, "AMERICAN HAGWON" AND "PACHINKO": I think that if
you look at education as only a path to social mobility, then I think that there are dangerous things that can happen along the way.
AMANPOUR: And the persistence of violence on college campus with the Cornell Seven allegations reverberating. From my archives, a look back at when Brown University faced its own reckoning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.
While the American president rails against their wartime leader, ordinary Ukrainians are dying. And now, with President Trump pulling back, the nation's very sovereignty hangs in the balance.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy laid it out in this harrowing message to the world. Posted on his X account, the picture of a little girl, Angelina, just one year old, killed in her stroller by a Russian strike on the city of Kharkiv.
Meanwhile, President Trump warms up to Putin, buying his diesel, inviting him to the G20 and even saying this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Have you agreed to a trilateral meeting with President Putin and Xi to talk about Ukraine?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, but I would -- I would do it. Not so much for Ukraine because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much.
And the same thing with China. We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: In fact, even after meeting the American envoy, Steve Witkoff, Putin is still killing Ukrainians every day, just like little Angelina.
Zelenskyy says Ukrainians will never surrender to the Russian bear, but admits that survival would be much harder without their American friends.
So he sought to mend ties meeting with the special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who this week described Vladimir Putin as a humanitarian. And fresh from that meeting, President Zelenskyy joined me from his country's capital, Kyiv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: President Zelenskyy, welcome to the program from Kyiv. ZELENSKYY: Thanks so much. Happy to see you, Christiane.
AMANPOUR: So, this is an incredibly important moment all of a sudden it looks like talks may be getting underway again.
In Oslo you met with the U.S. delegation, the negotiators, particularly Mr. Steve Witkoff.
ZELENSKYY: Yes. And I said that, look, we can call it ceasefire. We can call stop the killings. We can call freeze the conflict. The only one thing what is important not the item, the result.
We have to move from the war time. We have to move to diplomatic way, how to get real end of this war. How to get peace.
AMANPOUR: OK. Mr. President, can I ask you because Secretary Rubio, who you've also spoken to, told reporters yesterday that, as you say, the fight is over, a lot of territory still concentrated on what happens to the remainder of the Donbas.
[11:04:50]
ZELENSKYY: So, first of all for us, our land is very important because it's about people. It's not about kilometers.
But then we want to speak about kilometers, by the way, just to remind everybody. Now, about 19.5 -- 19.4 percent of our territory is temporary occupied, not 25. So, it is 17, et cetera. This is important.
Even want to speak about kilometers. But more important it's about people. And a lot of people died defending this land, defending our independence, our country.
AMANPOUR: Mr. President, obviously there's been a lot of spotlight on the latest rupture in your relationship with President Trump.
He's blaming you. You're saying that he's on the wrong side of history with that diesel deal for Russia.
Are you stepping back from that personal criticism? Have you been, you know, advised that this might not be the best way to be public about it since you need American help.
What are you feeling right now about this relationship?
ZELENSKYY: So, we have our partners. It's United States. And we have -- we need to have strong relations with the administration, with Congress. And we need bipartisan support.
And this all is very important because it's not about days. It's not about personalities. And I hope that is for the case for the future between us because we share the same values. And I think that we will be in the same security allies.
I always said it to European partners and I said it directly to American administration. I'm -- of course, I know what I do. I have to strengthen me, my country, my
people, my army, but not my enemy. This is, I think, very clear and fair between us.
That's why I know that if you give something to Putin, he will need everything. He will want everything and will not come down before he will eat all of this.
That's why I think that these sanctions it's like the first step. I hope that it will stop on it and chance to go back with this. But it can be news -- new lifting of sanctions.
And it will only give much more money for Putin for this war. And that's why I'm against it. And doesn't matter how many people will speak with me with -- about my messages, rhetoric and -- I mean, this -- what matters?
Who is on the right side? Me and my country, we are on the right side. Our partners who support us, on the right side. Americans, on the right side.
And if some sometimes somebody makes not the things which are stressing us, it's been democracy, freedom, I have to speak about it.
AMANPOUR: Clearly President Putin thinks that this winter he is going to break the back of Ukrainian resistance both morale and on the front line and maybe with these negotiations. What is the risk for you, for the civilians, for the integrity of Ukraine this coming winter?
And what did you think about Steve Witkoff calling Putin a humanitarian, I guess for releasing that 74-year-old American?
ZELENSKYY: No, no. I can't agree. It's not -- it's not about humanitarian things, really.
I don't know their dialogue, maybe their dialogue was very good. So I mean this -- it's up to them. Yes.
But what, what is this -- what is important? Yes. To understand the goal of Putin -- break us, destroy us, kill us. And that's why we hope that American administration and negotiators and Congress and they will -- they know it. They understand it. They will support us.
Not -- it's not -- by the way, it's not too much. And we pay for these missiles. We're just asking not to forget about us. We're thankful for all the support, what's been done. We are asking for critical important things about Patriot missiles if energy ceasefire is not supported by Russian side.
And we are asking, if it's possible to give us StarShield with normal shield to defend ourselves, great. If not, OK. We will survive and we will stay strong.
We will try to do it and we will do everything to bring peace closer. But we will not give chance Putin to win this war.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: President Zelenskyy, thank you very much indeed for joining us at this very difficult time.
ZELENSKYY: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[11:09:48]
AMANPOUR: Coming up later on the show, when religion becomes a political battleground. My conversation with conservative evangelical pastor Bob Roberts about politics, polarization, and his remarkable partnership with an imam working to build bridges across faiths.
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[11:14:46]
AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.
Just over a week to the U.S. midterms. And religion is front and center of the political debate again. In an increasingly bitter and polarized contest, it seems that faith is now also being weaponized for political gain.
Like in Michigan, where Democratic Senate candidate Abdul el-Sayed was recently challenged by a former Republican staffer to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood.
El-Sayed did so, but also questioned why his faith was being scrutinized in the first place. With the threat of driving wedges deeper, one conservative evangelical pastor from deep-red Texas is calling for a different approach.
Pastor Bob Roberts has joined forces with an imam to bring Christians, Muslims and Jews together, building bridges across all the religious divides.
When we spoke, he told me how that remarkable partnership came about.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Pastor Bob Roberts, welcome to the program.
Pastor, you do some of your work, a lot of this bridge building work with a partner who is a Muslim cleric, Imam Mohamed Magid. We tried to have him with us on this conversation, as you know, but unfortunately, he's not feeling well.
Why did you two choose to work together?
ROBERTS JR.: We didn't choose to work together. We accidentally met one another. I'm a very conservative evangelical pastor and I grew up in a little town of a thousand people and the other religion was the Methodist Church. That was it. I'm a Baptist. And I didn't know what a Muslim was. I knew very little
about the world. I knew a little bit about Judaism.
But when I got out and I began to experience the world and I got to know people, I realized that I knew a lot about the Bible, but I knew very little about people.
And I began to see all the ways that we conflicted and that we didn't get along. And I realized that there's this bigger picture of all of us inheriting this space on the world to live.
And faith ought to be a thing that brings us together. But instead, it was pulling us apart.
And then I began to realize as evangelicals, we have the worst negative view of Muslims of any group in the world. The only group that's worse are evangelical pastors.
So, just think about it. It's what members here coming from the pulpits that's driving that. And I realized Muslims could never change that. But I could.
I'm evangelical. And in Pakistan and other parts of the world, Muslim majority countries, Magid can do the same thing with the Muslim community and challenging them.
And we learned, frankly, more by challenging our own tribes than by challenging the other tribe. If we work together, we could see change. And it's been incredible.
AMANPOUR: I don't know whether you watched the viral video where a Muslim American who's running as an American under the American Constitution to be senator in Michigan was confronted by a conservative Christian. That's how he, I believe, described himself.
And essentially, you know, back and forth about essentially implying that perhaps El-Sayed of Michigan had some kind of sympathy for terrorism or et cetera.
And I wonder how you read that. What did you think when you saw that, if you have, in fact, come across it?
ROBERTS JR.: I've seen it. And it made me very sad. I'm from Texas. And I've watched the whole political climate in the last year just be ramped up in a horrendous way. And I think it's driven primarily by politicians, politicians that are fighting to get elected.
And so, they have thrown the Muslim community under the bus, so to speak. And I think it's unacceptable.
And I listen to things that are being said, and this is not the America that we put together, that we designed. This is America where we believe in religious freedom.
And it's horrible that it's considered acceptable. It should not be acceptable for Christians to say this person and their religion has no right to practice here. That's not who we are.
That's what we came to America for historically, theologically as a Christian. That's not what the Bible teaches. I mean, there's nowhere in the Bible that says that we're to make a Christian nation. It says that we're to have disciples in every nation that influence nations. But the way that we are responding is un-Christlike in every way.
AMANPOUR: Pastor, then, what happens when we're confronted with the situation that we're in right now in the United States? You've got an openly Catholic vice president who talks about his religion, and particularly, you know, not just as religion but in terms of politics and national security.
You've got an openly or self-avowedly conservative Christian Defense secretary who talks about the war on Iran as some kind of spiritual mandate by the United States to complete.
[11:19:51]
AMANPOUR: We know that there are these very, you know, conservative prayer groups based inside the White House. And you remember when a group of religious Christians sort of put their hands on President Trump shortly after the war on Iran began.
Now, this is employing Christianity and Jesus Christ to justify a war.
ROBERTS JR.: I think when we use our faith to justify violence, hateful speech, we've left our faith. Jesus didn't just give us a message.
He gave us the character that goes with that message, the way that we're to speak, the way that we're to talk, the way that we're to communicate to other people. And his message was one of love.
And listen, I disagree with Muslims. I believe Jesus was God. I disagree with Jews. I believe the Messiah was Jesus and he was God. So, I would believe fundamental, core, essential differences.
But I also believe in religious freedom. And I also believe that when this country was put together from Benjamin Franklin, who said that religious freedom is so important that the Grand Mufti of Istanbul should be here to come and preach. Thomas Jefferson -- we don't need a lesson in religious history and church history and the Constitution. But that's what holds us together.
And here's the thing. As a Christian, it is the Bible that holds us together. As a nation, it is the Constitution that holds us together. And that's critical.
I'm a conservative Christian. And that is something that we have forgotten.
AMANPOUR: Well, Pastor Bob Roberts, thank you. This has been incredibly hopeful, this conversation. You've really, you know, really highlighted the power of community and the need to get back to that.
So, thank you so much indeed for joining us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: And coming up, just days away from Israel's elections, what many prominent Israelis are calling Jewish terrorism is surging in the Occupied West Bank with little action from Netanyahu's administration.
A report from CNN's Jeremy Diamond on how Israel got here and where its heading. That's next.
[11:22:05]
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AMANPOUR: Welcome back.
The situation in the Occupied West Bank is spiraling downward, and fast. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered it closed immediately following two Palestinian gunmen opening fire on an Israeli military checkpoint on Friday.
It is unclear how long the closure will last. But it comes just ahead of crucial elections and on Netanyahu's watch, where Israeli settler violence has surged in the Occupied West Bank while the government has largely turned a blind eye.
Instead, Netanyahu's government has been advancing the expansion of settlements at record pace and allowing more outposts across the territory. This is considered illegal by the United Nations.
And Jeremy Diamond has this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: For more than two decades, these attacks have been an inescapable reality for Palestinians in the towns of Qusrah and Jalud. Israeli settlers, often descending from a hilltop outpost named Esh Kodesh, have broken windows, set homes on fire and beaten local residents.
BASHAR QARYOUTE, PALESTINIAN MEDIC: You can't even describe the tragedies we've witnesses inside this ambulance. We've seen tragedies, disasters, bodies, injured.
DIAMOND: Bashar al-Qaryoute has been a medic here for 25 years, witnessing that settler violence up close.
As we're driving through the town, I mean, it's like every 20 seconds or so, Bashar is stopping to point out yet another place where a settler attack took place.
For as long as Bashar has driven his ambulance, Esh Kodesh has stood here illegally under both international and Israeli law. But that changed in December when the Israeli government retroactively legalized it. Israel's finance minister, who directed the approval process, was among the first to show up at the newly-minted settlement, which is still considered illegal under international law.
But the violence didn't stop. It intensified. Esh Kodesh is one of 104 new settlements approved by the Israeli government since 2023. In just this area alone, Esh Kodesh is one of six new settlements, five of which were previously illegal outposts.
Settlers have established hundreds of these outposts over the last three years, affecting dozens of Palestinian communities across the West Bank.
That's because where there are outposts, there is almost always violence. Attacks against Palestinians have surged, doubling in the last three years.
Mahmoud Tubasi is all too familiar with that reality.
[11:29:51]
DIAMOND: He says he watches this security camera his two homes there 24 hours a day.
Three months ago, Israeli settlers forced him to flee the homes he built for his family.
What would happen if you went back?
MAHMOUD TUBASI, VICTIM OF SETTLER ATTACKS: They would kill me.
DIAMOND: That nearly happened last month, after the Israeli military acted on a Supreme Court order to return the Tubasis to their home, more than 100 settlers attacked, hurling stones and setting fires.
Tubasi sees it as yet more evidence of the Israeli government's support for violent settlers.
TUBASI: Why does the army have the power to stop Palestinians but when it comes to these settlers, suddenly it has no power?
No, they army has exactly the same power. It simply does not want to stop them.
DIAMOND: It is a cycle of impunity Tubasi first experienced 25 years ago when he says he was shot by an Israeli settler near the Esh Kodesh outpost.
TUBASI: Instead of imprisoning him, instead of restraining him, they legalized the settlement as reward. This confirms that the government encourages every settle to attack Palestinians.
DIAMOND: Facts on the ground bear that out. A month after the government legalized Esh Kodesh, settlers established new illegal outposts and violence surged.
We saw firsthand how settlers besieged another home in the area. The Israeli military deployed troops but failed to clear out the settlers.
The Israeli prime minister has condemned the violence but he has also downplayed it.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: The settler violence thing is a tremendous hoax. Not because there isn't settler, it's not settlers. Actually, it's about 150, 200 juvenile delinquents who are doing this.
DIAMOND: Netanyahu's government, the most right-wing in Israel's history, has emboldened the settlers, funneling more than $6 billion to settlements, including $450 million to support newly-legalized outposts.
His ministers of defense and national security have weakened law enforcement of Jewish violence against Palestinians, with only 6 percent of cases leading to an indictment.
Bashar's colleague was shot and killed while driving this ambulance, he says. No one was ever arrested and the attacks continue.
QARYOUTE: It's terrible. Whenever I go out in the ambulance, I expect that I might not be come back. I expect I won't return home.
DIAMOND: Bashar says much of it can be traced back to the government's outpost legalization.
QARYOUTE: After that, the settlers in Esh Kodesh bared their fangs. Their ambition grow significantly. Anyone who commits it's a crime is supposed to be punished but instead, they are rewarded for committing crimes and this is a very dangerous precedent taking place in the Esh Kodesh area and this entire area southern of Nabius.
DIAMOND: The cycle is now repeating itself across the West Bank, the settler's playbook now well established.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jalud, the West Bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: And while the region braces for more war on Iran after the midterms, we'll turn to a novel ten years in the making.
A decade after "Pachinko", Min Jin Lee is back with a new bestseller. She tells me about the inspiration for "American Hagwon" after the break.
[11:33:26]
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AMANPOUR: Welcome back.
You've probably read or at least heard of the book "Pachinko". Millions of copies were sold when it came out back in 2017. It made Korean-American author Min Jin Lee a household name. Now a beloved and award-winning writer known for her sweeping, multi-
generational family sagas, she is back with "American Hagwon". And while "Pachinko" was historical fiction set in Korea at the end of Japanese colonial rule, this new book takes us to California in the 1990s via Seoul and Sydney. It's a tale of migration, assimilation, and the pursuit of education and success.
These are, of course, poignant and topical themes in the current moment in U.S. politics and culture. Issues that are also deeply personal for Min Jin Lee. As she told me when we sat down together here in London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Min Jin Lee, welcome to our program.
LEE: Thank you so much for having me.
AMANPOUR: It's wonderful to have you. I mean, you're legendary now because of certainly "Pachinko". And it was such a massive hit, plus a series. And people have seen it, read it.
Now, "American Hagwon". What were you saying with this book?
LEE: I wanted to write a book trying to understand why education is so important to Koreans, not just in Korea, but around the world. And as I started to research it, it got kind of depressing because it made it the worst parts about education, about certification, about pedigrees, about transactionalism and networking. And I found that to be really sad because that's not the way I thought of education.
[11:39:46]
LEE: So, then I decided to pivot and ask the question, how do you live a wise life? Because wisdom is very distinct from education, I think.
AMANPOUR: So, basically, you're saying that you're focusing on the wisdom, the way maybe Americans see it or immigrant communities in America.
Education is to get ahead, maybe to integrate, but to make money, to get ahead, to be a successful immigrant. And you're saying it's time to look a little differently.
LEE: Yes, very well -- that's very well put. So, I think that if you look at education as only a path to social mobility, then I think that there are dangerous things that can happen along the way.
AMANPOUR: So, what made you reach back into your heritage of homeland to write these amazing books that you've written?
LEE: Oh, that's very kind of you. You know, in my books, I'm not a minority. I mean, it may be very well true that I am a minority racially, like in terms of statistics, that there aren't that many of me in certain groups. However, in my universe, I feel like I can be the center. And I think
in my books, I write about Koreans and we can focus on a person's character rather than a person's race.
AMANPOUR: It must affect you a lot then what you're seeing in the United States right now. I don't know whether it's directed towards Asians, but certainly towards all sorts of people of color who are being deported and the whole ICE and immigration crackdown.
Does that raise, does that bring back bad memories? Or does it, how does it affect you?
LEE: I find the focus on deporting poor, undocumented immigrants shocking. I think it is the worst of who we are right now. And I think that most Americans do not like the methods of how ICE is attacking parents and children and people who are working very hard.
And I think even employers are shocked by the fact that this is a terrible economic decision.
AMANPOUR: Employers and churchgoers, we've heard how a lot of churches are trying to protect their communities.
A lot of these people who have been cracked down on are actually the Catholic community or, you know, other Christian communities and other communities.
LEE: And taxpayers.
AMANPOUR: Yes, and taxpayers.
LEE: And taxpayers.
AMANPOUR: And taxpayers.
But I bring up faith because it features in your book and it also features in your life a lot, doesn't it?
LEE: Yes.
AMANPOUR: Tell me a little bit where that came from and how it affects not just your life, but your writing.
LEE: So, I grew up in the church. I like church and it features very strongly in the way I think about the world.
That said, I think for those immigrants in new countries, not just in America, very often centers of faith are very important in terms of having a third place, another space in which you are somebody, even if the larger society says you're nothing.
AMANPOUR: So, we have asked you to read a passage that you would like to sort of exemplify the story.
LEE: "D.H. was the first to take his mother's hand. 'Thank you for being our mother.' Bo and Mido sat silently, grateful that D.H. could say this for them.
John smiled, 'Our baby lawyer, D.H. is speaking for us.'
'It hurts when I laugh,' Helen said.
Mido couldn't speak. She had never seen a person die. And she could not have imagined that the person who had always seemed tireless could transform into the shadowy frame before her eyes.
She was near her mother's feet and she held them in her hands.
'Children,' Helen said, 'I will miss your graduations, your weddings, and the births of your children. I will not be here to take care of your wonderful father who has been my guardian angel.
But I want you to know that in heaven, your mother will ask the Lord to protect you and watch over you every single day. Maybe the Lord will take pity on me for missing so many valuable things with you that he will have to listen to me. I don't know why I have to go, but I still believe God is fair.'
Bo got up from his seat and put his arms around her. 'Bless us, Amma.'
Helen reached for her children. 'I will ask God. I will argue with him. I will ask the Lord for satisfaction for cutting short my life.
[11:44:46]
LEE: The Bible says that God likes a wise servant. So, I will plead for him to take my life in exchange for the protection of my family.'"
AMANPOUR: That is so beautiful.
LEE: Thank you.
AMANPOUR: It's so emotional. Wow.
LEE: God.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: And "American Hagwon" is out now.
Coming up after the break as the Cornell Seven case continues to reverberate, campus assaults have harrowingly long history in America.
From my archives, when Brown University faced its own reckoning over 35 years ago.
[11:45:25]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: Welcome back.
Shockwaves are still being felt after harrowing allegations at Cornell University that a woman was gang-raped at a fraternity house. This week, it emerged that Jane Doe felt, quote, "unsupported and disbelieved by the university's President. He rejects that characterization.
As Cornell reels, many wonder, will this force a reckoning? Campus assaults are all too frequent, and it's not a new problem.
Back in 1989, I was reporting on a spate of violent attacks at Brown University against both young women and men.
From my archives, here is that report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: It was a quiet day on the Brown University campus in Providence, Rhode Island, a quiet that belies the fear among many at this Ivy League school after a rash of attacks against students here.
There have been 20 so far this semester. This freshman, who does not want to be identified, says he was beaten by a gang of seven and had to be hospitalized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For bruises to my -- to different areas of my head and impact to my nasal area.
AMANPOUR: And last weekend, the students took to the streets in protest and to demand better security.
And indeed, security has been stepped up. The campus is getting better lighting, students are encouraged to take shuttle busses and use a new escort service designed for anyone afraid to walk alone at night.
Still, some say it's not enough.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think that enough stress has been put on the need for more security. I think that students obviously aren't taking the responsibility to make sure that they're always walking in groups at night.
AMANPOUR: It is a problem being faced on campuses across the country. At Yale University in Connecticut, there have been six attacks against students this semester. And at Syracuse University in upstate New York, there have been seven rapes since the summer.
Last week, the chancellor there announced stepped-up security measures and new counseling programs for students. Every year there are about 20,000 violent crimes committed on campuses nationwide, mostly by students themselves.
According to a recent national survey, statistics show that a great deal of campus violence goes unreported. When it comes to sexual assaults for instance, 66 percent are not reported to police and 48 percent of all physical assaults also go unreported.
Howard and Connie Clery's daughter, was raped and killed on a university campus three years ago. They say universities do not encourage students to take their complaints beyond campus security services.
HOWARD CLERY, DAUGHTER WAS RAPED AND KILLED: They never told they should go to the police, local police department and the district attorney to press charges.
CONNIE CLERY, DAUGHTER WAS RAPED AND KILLED: Because they're terrified that the public will find out about the crime on their campuses.
AMANPOUR: But at Brown University, where the recent rash of attacks has been chronicled in the student newspaper, administrators say they work closely with the local police force.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a very good working relationship with the Providence Police Department. We have very alert media who read the police blotters and so forth and so on.
AMANPOUR: Although university administrators say campus violence reflects the violence in society at large, they say they are committed to doing whatever it takes to keep their students safe.
Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Providence, Rhode Island.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: After that report, frustration continued to build at Brown. In the fall of 1990, female students resorted to writing the names of alleged campus rapists on the walls of the library bathrooms.
It received national attention at the time, sparking controversy but also a movement against this kind of violence.
Over 35 years later, this is still a problem. What some call an epidemic of sexual violence on campuses persists.
When we come back, the day Iceland stood still. On the anniversary of Iceland's history-making Women's Day Off, reflections from my conversation with President Halla Tomasdottir on the country's giant leap forward towards equality.
[11:53:55]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: And finally, as social and economic upheaval rock France and demonstrations erupted across Europe and all the way to India, a reminder of when Iceland's women fought for change and won.
On this day, October 24th in 1975, 90 percent of them went on strike, stopping work in their jobs and at home to prove the irreplaceable role of the female Icelander.
That 1975 strike, formally known as a Day Off, changed things forever. And today the country is the most gender-equal nation in the world.
Iceland's current president, Halla Tomasdottir, was just a child back then. But when we spoke last year, she told me how that day made her rethink what was possible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HALLA TOMASDOTTIR, ICELANDIC PRESIDENT: I remember it vividly because it was my mom's birthday, and this day they were not baking and cleaning. She and her sisters, as on every other day. And they were on a strike and they were having fun while doing it.
And when I asked my mom and her sisters why they were on a strike, they told me very plainly that they wanted to show that they matter. And I think that was maybe the beginning of me thinking that one day I might want to matter to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[11:59:49]
AMANPOUR: A great beginning, an inspiration. And while a majority of leadership positions are still held by men around the world, as far back as the 1980s, Iceland's first female president said it will be because women decide to show up in leadership and work in allyship with men, that we can achieve a more sustainable and peaceful world.
Hear, hear.
And that's all we have time for. 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.
