BEIRUT – France’s far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen refused to go into a meeting with Lebanon’s grand mufti on Tuesday after his aides asked her to wear a headscarf.
Le Pen, who is on a three-day visit to Lebanon this week and has met senior officials, was scheduled to meet Grand Sunni Muslim Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian on Tuesday morning.
Shortly after she arrived at his office, one of his aides tried to give her a white headscarf to put on.
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She refused. Le Pen said she had met in the past with the grand mufti of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, one of the world’s top Sunni clerics, without wearing a veil. Le Pen met the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, in 2015 and photos of the meeting show her with the cleric without wearing a veil.
Once she was told that customs are different in Lebanon, Le Pen walked toward her car and left.
Later, the mufti’s office issued a statement saying that Le Pen was told in advance through one of her aides that she will have to put a headscarf during the meeting with the mufti.
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“This is the protocol,” at the mufti’s office, the statement said.
The statement detailed how the mufti’s aides tried to give her the headscarf and that Le Pen refused to take it.
“The mufti’s office regrets this inappropriate behaviour in such meetings,” the statement said.
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