BEIRUT — French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen canceled a meeting on Tuesday with Lebanon’s grand mufti after refusing to wear a headscarf for the event.
Le Pen, who is visiting Lebanon to boost her foreign policy chops, met with President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday, and was scheduled to meet with the country’s top Sunni Muslim cleric, Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian, Reuters reported.
When she arrived at his office, one of his aides gave her a white headscarf to wear. After a discussion with his aides for a few minutes, she refused and went back to her car, according to the Washington Post.
After canceling the meeting with the grand mufti, Le Pen said she had told the cleric’s office in advance she would not be wearing a headscarf.
However, the cleric’s office issued a statement saying that Le Pen was told ahead of time that she would be required to wear a headscarf for the meeting.
Le Pen could be trying to win some Franco-Lebanese votes with her visit to the former French protectorate, Reuters reported.
French law bans headscarves in the public service and in high schools. Le Pen wants to extend the ban to all public places, a measure that is seen at targeting Muslims, according to Reuters.
