French Presidential Candidate Marine Le Pen Refuses to Wear Headscarf on Lebanon Trip Country’s highest Sunni Muslim authority says politician had been informed she would need to cover her head By William Horobin and Stacy Meichtry
https://www.wsj.com/articles/french-presidential-candidate-marine-le-pen-refuses-to-wear-headscarf-during-lebanon-trip-1487699329
ARIS—Marine Le Pen, the presidential candidate for France’s far-right National Front, seized on a trip to Lebanon to showcase her hard line on Islamic custom, refusing Tuesday to wear a head scarf and upending her plans to meet with the country’s senior Sunni Muslim cleric.
On the final day of a three-day visit, Ms. Le Pen refused to take a head scarf before meeting with Grand Mufti Sheik Abdel-Latif Derian at his office, saying Sunni officials hadn’t demanded she cover herself in meetings with Sunni leaders in the past.
Ms. Le Pen was making the visit to Lebanon in a bid to raise her international profile in a country at the doorstep of Syria’s war and its resulting refugee crisis.
The press office of Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon’s highest Sunni authority, said it had informed an aide to Ms. Le Pen on Monday that she would need to cover her head for the meeting.
“When she arrived, the [staff] were surprised by her refusal to abide” by the protocol, Dar al-Fatwa said in a statement carried by the National News Agency.
In France, full-face veils are outlawed and headscarves are banned from schools and public-sector workplaces.
Throughout the visit, Ms. Le Pen has highlighted her differences with France’s political establishment on how to address the war in Syria. On Monday, she said the “realistic” way to end the conflict was to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who France and others have accused of committing war crimes against his own people.
The National Front, which is campaigning on a platform of opposition toward the European Union and immigration, has for years called for tough application of rules on religious clothing and backed attempts last summer to ban head-to-foot burkini swimsuits on beaches.
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