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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 22 February

Le Pen refuses headscarf, nixes talks with Lebanon cleric

ANDREA ROSA Rome do as the Romans
HUSSEIN MALLA do.”
Associated Press The headscarf incident oc-
BEIRUT (AP) — France’s curred ahead of a sched-
far-right presidential can- uled meeting with Leba-
didate Marine Le Pen re- non’s grand mufti, Sheikh
fused to don a headscarf Abdel-Latif Derian.
for a meeting with Leba- Shortly after Le Pen arrived
non’s top Sunni Muslim cler- at his office, one of his aides
ic on Tuesday and walked handed her a white heads-
away from the scheduled carf to put on. Following
appointment after a brief a discussion with his aides
squabble at the entrance. that lasted a few minutes,
The debacle topped Le she refused and returned
Pen’s three-day visit to to her car.
Lebanon, where she held Le Pen said she had in-
her first campaign meet- formed her host the night
ing with a head of state. before that she would not
It drew the focus to her wear the scarf but they
strong support for secular- didn’t cancel the meet-
ism and a proposal in her ing. Instead, she said, “They
presidential platform that tried to impose it upon me.”
promotes banishing heads- She said the Grand Sheik
carves and other obvious of Al-Azhar, the head of
religious symbols in all pub- the Sunni world’s most pres-
lic spaces. An aide to Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian, right, holds a head scarf as he tries to tigious learning institute,
convince French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, center, to wear it during his meet-
“I consider the headscarf a ing with the Mufti but she refused, at Dar al-Fatwa the headquarters of the Sunni Mufti, in Beirut, didn’t require her to don
symbol of a woman’s sub- Lebanon, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017. the headscarf. Photos of Le
mission,” Le Pen told report- (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) Pen with Ahmed al-Tayeb
ers at the end of her visit. “I Le Pen refuses to don the not comparable because other “ostentatious” reli- in 2015 in Cairo show her
will not put on the veil.” headscarf, it is criticized, one is a state visit while the gious symbols in classrooms with her hair uncovered.
Le Pen compared her re- but when Michelle Obama other is to a religious body. to all public spaces. While The officials at the mufti’s
fusal to wear the heads- refused to do it in Saudi Le Pen dismissed the criti- the law covers all religions, office “kept the meeting
carf to the decision by for- Arabia, it was considered cism. French law already it is widely viewed as aimed and consequently put me
mer U.S. First Lady Michelle admirable,” she said, solic- bans headscarves in all at Muslims. before a fait accompli,”
Obama to decline wearing iting applause from the ac- classrooms except univer- When asked if she fears her she said. “I stuck to my po-
one during her state visit to companying delegation. sities. She has proposed proposal may ignite the sition, because when I take
Saudi Arabia. Journalists shouted back extending the 2004 law anger of the Muslim com-
“I note that when Marine a position it corresponds to
that the two situations were banning headscarves and munity, she said: “When in a conviction. q