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The Amanpour Hour

Interview With Trump Former Strategic Communications Director Marc Lotter; Interview With Democratic Strategist Simon Rosenberg; The Life And Legacy Of Iconic Singer Harry Belafonte; Flashback To Iran's Green Revolution; Oppressed To Death: Life Under Taliban Rule; Panda Diplomacy Is Back. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired June 29, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:52]

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: Let's talk more actions as the dust settles on a presidential debate. How can Joe Biden and Donald Trump make their case to the American people?

Also this hour, the U.N. takes flak for giving the Taliban a seat at the table, but leaving Afghan women out in the cold.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is really devastating for Afghan women.

AMANPOUR: We'll update you on one girl's second chance at life after she tried to check out of the Taliban's misogynistic rule.

Then, "Not My President". From my archive flashback to the Green Revolution when Iranians shouted "death to the dictator" and accused the ayatollahs of stealing the 2009 election and locking up their reformist leader.

And finally, the new documentary that captures how young activists today learned from singer and civil rights campaigner Harry Belafonte.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.

And we begin with where the U.S. election campaign election is headed after that first presidential debate.

A faltering Joe Biden faced off against a firehose of falsehoods from Donald Trump. As one wag (ph) put it "an old man versus a con man". And now, both candidates are back on the campaign trail trying to sell their vision to a deeply-divided public.

Will Biden be able to successfully sell his record and prove to be that bridge to the future that he claimed when he won four years ago? Was Trump able to convince people that he's any better than he was when he lost the election four years ago? And now with a felony conviction and more trials to face.

According to a post-debate CNN SSRS poll, 81 percent of voters said that it didn't affect their vote choice. 14 percent said they're considering switching, and 5 percent said they would.

And what about the global constituency watching closely?

Well Marc Lotter, Donald Trump's former strategic communications director and special assistant to the president and also vice president Mike Pence is here. And we have Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic political strategist and veteran of two presidential campaigns.

So gentlemen, welcome to the program. You were in Atlanta. You are in Atlanta where the CNN debate was held. You were in the rooms watching to be able to talk to us afterwards.

So, from your perspective, Marc Lotter, how did your candidate do?

MARC LOTTER, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: I thought Donald Trump did great. He was talking about the issues that matter to the American people and offering a vision to fix the problems that have been largely caused by Joe Biden.

I think he showed strength, which is something that the American people have always sought in their presidents, contrasted to Joe Biden, who really struggled and showed a lot of weakness.

AMANPOUR: So Simon Rosenberg, you know, because you're there, that the Republicans are very, very happy with the way their candidate did. How about the Democrats? And you are a -- not just an adviser, you're a key strategist.

SIMON ROSENBERG, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL STRATEGIST AND PUBLISHER, "HOPIUM CHRONICLES": Yes. Listen, I think Joe Biden has been a very good president who had a very bad night. And, you know, how consequential this will be during the course of this long campaign, we'll find out.

But I think the other thing we saw in addition to Joe Biden and being able to make the case for his presidency, which he struggled with a little bit, no question, is that we also saw in Donald Trump a person who's a bad man, who's a terrible candidate, and would be a disastrous president for the United States.

I mean, the level of lying and falsehoods that we heard from him was shocking, even for somebody in the business who's been following Trump.

Virtually nothing he said was true. And so, I don't think it was a great debate for the American people. I don't think they learned very much that's really going to help them make this decision, as your own polling showed.

But I do think this was a better night for Trump than Biden, and it means that we've got work to do in the coming months.

[11:04:51]

AMANPOUR: You know what, I actually -- I was going to go on to a little bit more of the optics, because obviously optics and perception are a huge point to this. But I do want to ask you about the economy -- both of you -- because that is clearly top of mind, not just for voters in the United States, bread-and-butter issues, cost of life but all -- cost of living, but all over the world.

So, Donald Trump, as you said, Marc, made strong claims and we're going to play this sound bite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The tax cuts spurred the greatest economy that we've ever seen just prior to COVID and even after COVID. It was so strong that we were able to get through COVID much better than just about any other country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: But listen, 16 Nobel prize-winning economists have warned that a second Trump term would reignite inflation. They say Joe Biden's economic agenda is vastly superior to Donald Trump's.

Also as you know Marc, and I'm sure you've been reading these -- he, Donald Trump, had a meeting with executives just in the last few days, and they said remarkably meandering, couldn't keep a straight thought and was all over the map.

And it's also been pointed out by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld at Yale that not a single person among Forbes 100 CEOs has donated to Trump's campaign.

So, these are facts. How does that, Marc, make him better on the economy?

LOTTER: Well, the Nobel laureates were wrong when they predicted that he was going to ruin the economy in 2016, 2017.

Look, people know that the Trump economic policies worked. They actually lowered people's taxes. Real, hardworking, middle-class Americans saw their taxes go down. They saw the amount of revenue to the federal government go up. We saw jobs coming back.

Obviously, we were recovering when the pandemic -- from the pandemic as the election took place, and we had no inflation. 1.4 percent when the -- when Joe Biden took office. Gas was a little over $2 a gallon. Those are all realities that they can't change.

And I get it. You get a bunch of liberal Ivy -- you know, Ivy Tower elites who want Joe Biden to be president. Many people aren't buying it.

AMANPOUR: Yes. Look, I think you and I both know that most CEOs are not liberal. They might be elite, but there's certainly -- many, many of them have backed former Republican presidents. This is the first time a Republican candidate has received so little backing from them.

But I want to put that question to you as well, Simon. Truly, American people have been, you know, really suffering -- cost of living, inflation, all the rest of it.

Biden said, yes, the economy, you know, was great for rich people during Trump. He lowered rich people and corporate taxes. But what about his own record? He didn't, in fact, defend his own economic record at all.

ROSENBERG: Yes. I mean, first of all Donald Trump's economic record is among the worst in American history. I mean, he was the first president to have job loss on his watch since Herbert Hoover.

And this idea that he was this -- that the economy performed stellar under him is an unbelievable falsehood and lie.

The second thing is that Joe -- the economy under Joe Biden, we're actually going through one of the greatest periods of economic growth in American history right now. We've had GDP growth over 3 percent. As you know, it's been far higher than any other G7 country in the world.

We have the best job market since the 1960s. Inflation last month was zero, right? Prices did not rise, and it's now down in -- in today's PCE number, it's now down to the -- basically where the Fed wants it to be, making interest rates far more likely to be cut, you know, this year.

Joe Biden has had a stellar track record on the economy.

What Donald Trump is proposing would raise -- dramatically spike inflation, it would cripple the economy, create massive work shortages in the United States and create far larger deficits.

I mean, it is -- one of the reasons that CEOs are staying away from him is because they view his economic plans as being dangerous and reckless in a time when America is booming and we're breaking records in the stock market.

AMANPOUR: So Simon, why couldn't Joe Biden put that case to the American people yesterday. He spectacularly did not put that case to the American people. And furthermore, you know and I'm sure your phone is blowing up like all Democrat strategists that there is a mass of people who want Biden to be persuaded to pull out and we will discuss where this campaign goes when we come back after a short break.

Then later in the hour, the young activist behind a new documentary, how they learned from a veteran, singer and civil rights campaigner Harry Belafonte.

[11:09:16] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program and we are back with our political panel Marc Lotter, Donald Trump's former strategic communications director and special assistant to the president and vice president Mike Pence. And Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic political strategist and veteran of two presidential campaign.

Let's continue this conversation.

First I want to play, Simon, and indeed Marc, a video and sound of President Biden after the debate, after he got off the stage. Looked to me like a different guy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I can't think of one thing he said that was true. No, I'm not being facetious. But look, we're going to beat this guy. We need to beat this guy. And I need you in order to beat him. You're the people I'm running for.

[11:14:51]

BIDEN: We're the finest nation in the whole damn world. No one's close. Nobody is close. And let's keep going. See you at the next one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: I guess both of you might think that if that person had turned up on the stage, it would be a different dynamic. But Simon, where was that person?

ROSENBERG: Listen, Joe Biden had a bad night. I mean, there's just no way to get around that. I mean, I -- as I said earlier, I think he's been a very good president. He's got a strong case for his reelection.

He didn't do that. He didn't -- he wasn't effective last night in making that case. But it's just one moment in a long campaign. And we've got a long way to go here. We're in the very beginning.

Our elections are long here in the United States. We're in the very beginning stages. This, in many ways, was really the beginning of the general election.

But we've got the two conventions that coming up -- sorry about that -- we've got two conventions coming up. We've got lots of other -- we've got a major moment in the next few weeks, is Donald Trump's sentencing, where he could be sentenced to prison in the next few weeks.

So there are going to be a lot of other moments. But we are clearly coming out of this knowing that our job got a little bit harder, and we've got a lot of work to do ahead of us.

AMANPOUR: So Marc, by contrast then, do you think your job got a little bit easier, even though your candidate does, in fact, have challenges ahead?

LOTTER: Yes. Well, we went into this with the wind at our back to begin with. I mean there were two polls earlier this week from New York Times, Siena and Quinnipiac, that both showed Donald Trump leading Joe Biden head-to-head nationally by four percentage points.

At no point, by the way, in the 2019 or 2020 years did Donald Trump ever lead Joe Biden, even before the pandemic last time around. So, it shows you what a challenge they have.

You also have Donald Trump campaigning Friday in the Commonwealth of Virginia, hasn't been Republican in 20 years. Minnesota's now in play.

So, the swing state map is growing in Donald Trump's favor. The polls are all shifting in Donald Trump's favor. We and Donald Trump have to just keep talking about the issues that matter to the American people.

Joe Biden made his job even more difficult and it was already a Mount Everest sized hill to climb.

AMANPOUR: Simon, I see you, you know, shaking your head, but if you look at columnists across the spectrum, Thomas Friedman, for instance, "Joe Biden is a good man, a good president, he must bow out of the race."

ROSENBERG: Yes, I do want to say that this idea that the polls are shifting towards Trump is not true. I mean, there have been dozens of polls taken and the majority of polls have the race shifting two to four points to Biden over the last few weeks.

And this idea that Virginia and Minnesota are going to be in play are just absurd. I mean, it's a -- you know, it's a psychological game the Trump campaign is playing.

And so, we've got to stay focused as Democrats, put our head down, do the work. It may have got a little bit harder, but I still think we're going to win this election.

AMANPOUR: Let me ask you about an issue and talking about hurting and struggling. Many, many millions of women in the United States have seen their fundamental human rights overturned by the Supreme Court. And Donald Trump, he brags about it. He says, look, I put in these three fine conservative justices, and they overturned Roe versus Wade. And there's a big dilemma for so many, many women in the United States over this.

I'm going to play the abortion exchange between the two candidates during the debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: A doctor should be making those decisions. Thats how it should be run. Thats what you're going to do. And if I'm elected, I'm going to restore Roe v Wade.

TRUMP: So that means he can take the life of the baby in the ninth month and even after birth, because some states Democrat-run take it after birth. Again, the governor, former governor of Virginia, put the baby down, then we decide what to do with it. So he's in -- he's willing to, as we say, rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Marc, because that is such offensive language, I'm just going to make a fact check here.

Abortions at or after 21 weeks are uncommon and represent 1 percent of all abortions in the United States. The idea of killing babies after birth is just so offensive.

Nonetheless, there is a major abortion conundrum in the United States right now. And in the midterms you could see that Democrats or women voted on this -- on this case.

What do you think is going to happen in this upcoming election on this issue?

LOTTER; Well, I think the fact of the matter is that no matter who the president of the United States is, it's not going to change this issue because Congress is never going to pass anything. And what Roe v Wade, the overturning of Roe v Wade did, was it restored democracy.

Because now the people's elected representatives are the ones who get to weigh in on this matter. But I do want to clarify one thing Donald Trump was absolutely clear. He would not sign in national abortion ban and he supports exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

ROSENBERG: Well, that was actually a strong part of the debate for Joe Biden last night. And I think that what is just clear, what's true, because a lot of what Donald Trump said about this last night was not true.

[11:19:51]

ROSENBERG: And he sounded in this section in particular like a raving lunatic, frankly, is that he would is true, is that Donald Trump is responsible for stripping the rights and freedoms away of tens of millions of women in America who now have less rights and freedoms than women do in places like Mexico and Brazil and places all over the world.

And Donald Trump is trying to present his new states' rights position is something that's moderate or consensual, but it's actually a reinforcement of his fundamental extremism.

And so I do think this is going to be a very material issue in the election and virtually every election that has been contested since Dobbs happened two years ago, Republicans have underperformed. We've over-performed.

I still think that's the likely outcome in this election in November. AMANPOUR: Simon Rosenberg for Biden and Marc Lotter for Trump -- thanks for being with us.

ROSENBERG: Thanks, Christian.

LOTTER: Thank you.

AMANPOUR: And when we come back, Harry Belafonte's legacy continues to inspire a new generation of artists and activists. I speak to the young people behind a new documentary on his legacy.

[11:20:54]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

Time now for a celebration of the life and legacy of an extraordinary individual, Harry Belafonte.

(MUSIC)

AMANPOUR: The show called "King of Calypso" with the trailblazing singer, actor and a tireless civil rights activist.

Now the new documentary "Following Harry" brings us an intimate look at Belafonte's remarkable life story. The film includes many of the younger generation Belafonte inspired and mentored but also listened to.

Including Carmen Perez Jordan, an activist who now heads up the Gathering for Justice, an NGO that was founded by Belafonte, and musician Aloe Blacc, who along with Carmen this month received the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award.

Welcome both of you to the program.

It is an extraordinary documentary. It's just so sort of real-time, like a tutorial, like a lesson evolving before your eyes.

So, we know that there's over incarceration of black and brown young people in the United States.

And I want to play a little bit of Harry himself in the documentary talking about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY BELAFONTE, MUSICIAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS ICON: The Gathering came out of a deeper inquiry on my part about incarceration of young people and the injustice system.

I do a lot of work in the lockup with a lot of young people because I remember with tremendous clarity what it was like to try to work your way out of a bad deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So, Carmen, I wonder what you think has been achieved in the attempt to have more social justice in this regard. And also, what you were able to tell him and vice versa about the march that you were responsible also for launching, which was the Women's March on the inauguration day of Donald Trump in 2017?

CARMEN PEREZ-JORDAN, CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS LEADER AND FORMER NATIONAL CO- CHAIR, 2017 WOMEN'S MARCH ON WASHINGTON: There were so many lessons in my conversations with Mr. Belafonte. One of them was part of the six principles of Kenya nonviolence.

And it was principle number three, attack the forces of evil, not people doing evil. And so, when we were organizing the women's march, the attack was not against Trump, it was actually creating pathways and entry points for all women to feel that they were connected to a movement, to something larger than themselves.

And so, Mr. Belafonte would sit with me and guide me through the lessons he learned through the original March on Washington. And so, a lot of what we were able to do with the 2017 women's march was really based on his guidance.

He always said, meet people where they're at, champion them to your cause. He said, you know, there's a lane for everybody to get involved in the movement.

And so, when we were thinking about preparing the agenda, we needed to bring in artists like Aloe Blacc, Alicia Keys, other women who were demanding rights for women.

AMANPOUR: And, Aloe, I want to ask you about a particular speech that Harry made back in 2013 when he was -- I believe he was being awarded at the NAACP. And he didn't just say thank you. He put everybody in the audience on notice. I'm just going to play an extract.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BELAFONTE: The question is, where is the raised voice of Black America? Why are we mute? Where are -- where are our leaders, our legislators? Where is the church?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: You know, really throwing the gauntlet down. I mean he was not afraid to shine the spotlight and to, you know, turn the mirror on his own community.

What did you think, Aloe, when you heard about that speech?

ALOE BLACC, MUSICIAN: What I thought was, it was my turn to step -- stand up and step into the light and be part of the change.

[11:29:47]

BLACC: Harry was calling on all of us to use our voices, our celebrity, our influence, our artistic expression.

And so, what I've been doing since then, putting together an album in -- with the support of an organization called "Stand Together" where all the songs are representative of and amplifying the work of people on the ground, community workers who are improving their environments and the people that they serve. Organizations that are doing the hard work to better the lives of the most vulnerable.

This is the way that we can show up as artists. And I -- you know, I look to all of my peers within the music industry, the film industry, and other entertainment industries to use their voice, use your voice to speak truth to power.

One of the things that Harry Belafonte always said was that artists are the gatekeepers of truth, and it was a quote that he got from his hero, Paul Robeson.

AMANPOUR: He often said in the film and throughout his career, you know, was it worth it? Did everything I do mean anything? What did we change?

I want to ask you that, Carmen, about what he said and what you think you can change.

PEREZ-JORDAN: I absolutely feel it was worth it. You know, I want Mr. Belafonte and everybody to know that, you know, what he did was pave the way for so many of us.

We all have a role to play in this movement, whether we're involved in the women's movement, whether we're involved in the criminal legal system movement, there is a lane for us.

And Mr. Belafonte just didn't impact those of us that are part of this film. He gathered so many young people, and there are young people all over this country, all over this world that are continuing his legacy.

AMANPOUR: And that is what I want to end with, because -- yes Aloe -- because we're in the midst of an election, young people historically don't turn out in the numbers that they should. What do you think this time around?

BLACC: I think this time around, young people absolutely have to. The world depends on their action right now. And those are the people -- those are the people who can make the change. We are the ones that are going to be in charge of the future. We've got to step up.

AMANPOUR: Thank you both so much indeed for being with us.

"Following Harry" is expected to be in theaters and available to stream later this year, find updates and information at FollowingHarry.org.

And coming up next from my archive, lessons from the so-called 2009 Green Revolution for this weekend's presidential election in Iran and why the candidates have put women's rights at the heart of their campaigns. [11:32:20]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

Snap elections in Iran this weekend after President Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash last month. Six officially approved candidates bowed to the inevitable and declared they would put women's rights at the heart of their presidency after the crackdown down on nationwide protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. In 2022, Amini's death in custody of Iran's so-called morality police sparked an uprising, demanding justice and reform with the popular rallying cry, "women, life, freedom".

I was there for the now infamous elections of 2009 reporting on those demanding change in the largest challenge to the Islamic Republic since its inception back in 1979. And then women led the rallying cry for change against the despised President Ahmadinejad.

Here's my report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: This is Mother's Square in Tehran, the center statue was sculpted by Zahra Rahnavard. An artist and academic, some of her other work is displayed in this downtown gallery which was designed by her architect husband Mir-Hossein Mousavi who also happens to be President Ahmadinejad's leading rival in the Iranian elections.

For the first time ever in Iran, a candidate has campaigned with his wife and Rahnavard has drawn huge crowds to husband's rallies, especially women.

"I'm here to say that men and women are equals," she tells us. More women than men have voted in the past few elections. And Rahnavard promise then it will count this time if Mousavi wins.

"We made this promise to the women and will stand by it," she says.

"Mousavi, Mousavi, get my Iranian flag back for me," chant this women, with their demands growing, all leading candidates were forced to listen.

On the day before election, the graffitis being spray-painted off the wall. But change was a slogan used by one of the reformists, the only cleric in the race who promised to campaign for women's rights if he became president.

And the hardline conservative, Mohsen Rezai also said that he would have female ministers if he won the election.

Women were allowed to register for the presidential race for the very first time. But the religious-vetting body deemed none fit to run.

"34 million women demand female cabinet ministers, 34 million women demand to be eligible to run for president," says Rahnavard. "34 million women want the civil law and family law revised."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: But on election night, June 2009, when the results were called we watched the shocked and angry voters take to the streets accusing the regime of fraud and stealing the election sparking the so-called Green Revolution. Here's that phase.

[11:39:57]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Frustration boiled over and ran through the streets of this Tehran neighborhood after official election results delivered reform candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi a crushing defeat in Fridays elections.

"Mousavi, Mousavi, get my vote back for me," they shout.

"Death to the dictator," they shout.

Hundreds of riot police were deployed. And for an hour here, they were running battles with angry street protesters as each side charge the other. The protesters threw rocks and set garbage cans on fire and many were beaten with batons.

After a while, the growing crowd surged towards the main square. There were more security forces and police but here they did not intervene.

And then the protesters set off down Tehran's main north-south avenue.

"We are here to protect our votes," says this man, "because we feel we've been insulted, our voters been insulted."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can change it. We can change it.

AMANPOUR: Thousands (INAUDIBLE) the people have now joined thousands and thousands of supporters, marching down this main artery that links north with south Tehran.

Hundreds more wave them on from the side streets, from windows and rooftops, from the overpass.

"Come over and support us," shouted the marchers. As this was happening, the final election results were being broadcast by the interior ministry. Of 39 million votes cast, 24.5 million were counted for president Ahmadinejad and just over 13 million for Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

And with that came the official seal of approval. Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei delivered message congratulating the people on their epic Friday election on the record turnout and the result. Saying the president was everyone's president.

But Mousavi, who had last night declared himself the winner based on his campaigns exit polls also wrote an open letter to the people calling the results shocking and vowing not to surrender quote, "to such state craft where the system cheats the people out of their vote.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: 15 years later, that reform leader Mousavi remains under house arrest while the majority of people there keep demanding, well reform.

When we come back and update on a story, we first brought you last year about an Afghan teenager called Azo, who attempted to take her own life to escape Taliban rule.

Up next, how she's doing now, and the doctor who was inspired to help her.

[11:42:51]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

It is the most serious women's rights crisis in the world. Afghanistan under Taliban rule which is defined by its utter misogyny. Since it seized control almost three years ago, the Taliban has rolled back women's rights almost entirely.

Most girls and women have been barred from schools and universities. Beauty salons have been shut down, and women are forbidden to travel without a male guardian. And crucially, most cannot work or provide for their families.

In the latest attack on women, the Taliban is sending officials to a U.N. meeting on Afghanistan in DOHA on the condition that women don't participate and women's rights are kept off the agenda.

Eight months ago on this program, CNN's Anna Coren exposed the heartbreaking consequence of the Taliban's rule as suicide rates among women have surged.

She now brings us an update on what led one young Afghan girl to such despair and her second chance at life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Huddled on the floor over school books, 16-year-old Arzo meticulously copies the English sentences. Her neat cursive writing, a display of devotion to furthering her education.

"Learning new words makes me happy," she explains.

But this scene was unthinkable just eight months ago when we first met Arzo in the same room on the outskirts of Karachi in Pakistan.

"Don't worry. You'll be fine," says her brother, kissing her hand. "We are with you always".

Arzo was bedridden, her skeletal frame wasting away. Every breath she took and movement she made causing unbearable pain.

Arzo is from neighboring Afghanistan and it's there in her home in July of last year, she tried to kill herself.

Can you talk to us about -- this is the first time the teenager whose identity is hidden due to security concerns is able to speak to us about what led her to that point.

[11:49:49]

COREN: "On that day, I felt like everything was over. I glanced at pictures of my classmates and felt a deep sense of longing. I was overwhelmed by hopelessness. And that's why I drank battery acid convinced it would end my life.

Arzo, seen here in pink in happier times, is one of countless Afghan girls who have attempted suicide, an alarming trend spreading across the country since the Taliban returned to power almost three years ago.

A ban on secondary education for girls, one of the most damaging of dozens of edicts enforced by the Taliban contributing to what human rights activists describe as the most serious women's rights crisis in the world.

A call backed up by U.N. officials.

RICHARD BENNETT, U.N. SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFGHANISTAN: The Taliban's institutionalized system of gender oppression established and enforced through its violations of women and girls fundamental rights. It's widespread and systematic and amounting to crimes against humanity.

COREN: But despite these powerful language, the U.N. has appease the Taliban for this weekend's U.N. conference on Afghanistan in Doha, agreeing to its demands that women's rights are off the official agenda, guaranteeing its attendance for the very first time. Nor will Afghan women be represented in Taliban meetings.

HEATHER BARR, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: This is shocking and shameful behavior. And this really represents a huge win for the Taliban on its (INAUDIBLE) in terms of how much power they're able to exercise, how much the international community is allowing their conduct, their abuses to be normalized. And this is really devastating for Afghan women.

COREN: Especially for girls like Arzo.

After her suicide attempt, she was vomiting blood and couldn't swallow. Her siblings smuggled her into Pakistan for treatment at a local hospital where Arzo's condition only worsened.

AMANPOUR: The rising number of girls turning to suicide out of their despair.

COREN: When our story aired in December, a highly respected institution in Pakistan that wishes to remain anonymous contacted CNN, offering Arzo proper medical care that would ultimately save her life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her weight was that of a probably a four-year-old. She was 20 to 22 kilograms at the time that we saw her.

There's no doubt in my mind that she had only a few months left to live really.

COREN: By consuming battery acid Arzo suffered what's called an esophageal stricture, a narrowing of the esophagus, stopping food from passing to her stomach.

Over several procedures, doctors inflated a tiny balloon inside her esophagus to gradually widen the passage, allowing her to eat.

In January this year, she ate her first meal of rice and milk.

"It was delicious. I felt strong at that moment and so happy. I told myself I could get through these hard days since then."

And since then, she has doubled her weight.

Yet Arzo's battles are far from over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see the area where she was pretty badly- scarred.

COREN: Her doctor says she requires ongoing medical care and is now at risk of developing esophageal cancer.

But the immediate threat facing Arzo and her siblings is deportation. As Pakistan prepares to expel the next wave of undocumented Afghan migrants approximately one-fifth of the nearly 3 million Afghans living in Pakistan were deported by the end of last year.

Homes in refugee camps have been marked by authorities for the next round. And Arzo is visibly upset at the prospect.

Would you try to kill yourself again if you were forced to return to Afghanistan?

"If I go back to Afghanistan, I would end up doing the same thing again because I can't attend school or see my friends. I cannot live there."

For the pediatric surgeon who operated on Arzo, he says they were lucky to get to her in time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want to be at the resuscitating end. The goal is to be at the prevention part and to kind of not allow it to happen.

COREN: But sadly, there is no way to stop what is happening in Afghanistan under Taliban rule as an entire generation of girls, just like Arzo, are unable to see any light on the horizon.

Anna Coren, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Such a mountain of threats that even the doctor didn't want his identity revealed for fear of what might happen to him if he saves girls and women. At least Arzo has survived.

And we will be right back with some unusual diplomats.

[11:54:40]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: And finally, chalking up a win for international relations, kind of. Because it's official, panda diplomacy is back.

San Diego Zoo welcomed a pair of giant pandas this week called Yun Chuan and Xin Bao. It's the first time in more than 20 years that pandas have been brought to America. Historically, since the 1970s, they've been used as U.S.-China friendship envoys.

[11:59:49]

AMANPOUR: But as relations turned frosty last year, China recalled four of them. Then in January their foreign minister pledged pandas would return as tensions soared.

No need to rush to San Diego right now though. They won't be on view to the public for a few weeks until they acclimatize. If only diplomacy was always so black and white.

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

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