World-renowned journalist Christiane Amanpour is known for her tough-as-nails warzone reporting and holding world leaders accountable. But in her new CNN original series, “Sex & Love Around The World,” things take an unexpectedly intimate turn. “I’m trying to show you the world, culture, and personal politics...through girls, women, and the idea of sex and love,” Amanpour told Cheddar at SXSW. Through the series Amanpour takes a peek at the sexual lives and emerging freedoms of women in major cities from Berlin to Tokyo to New Delhi. While there were vast cultural differences between these women, Amanpour said she managed to find a common thread that ties them together. “What I found here was that the younger generation of women across these cities...are actually claiming their own...agency. They are not victims,” said Amanpour. “They are actually in a moment in our history where they can go out and say, ‘I am a whole human being, I am somebody who deserves happiness, who has a right to my own sexual satisfaction.’” Amanpour says she was most surprised on her journey by Shanghai. “[The city] just blew me away by how advanced it is.” “I believe Shanghai has the highest concentration of business billionaires in the world who are female, but it’s also a place where they had arranged marriage for generations, so there’s no concept of dating,” explained Amanpour. “These women now are learning how to date, they want to go out there and work, have their economic independence, and have their sexual freedom and their personal independence as well.” “Sex & Love Around The World” launches on March 17 on CNN. For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-christiane-amanpour-found-herself-tied-up-at-a-bdsm-workshop).
