France's far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen sparked controversy today during her brief visit to Lebanon when she refused to wear a veil to meet the country's top Sunni Muslim cleric.
On her last day in the small Mediterranean country, Le Pen arrived at Sheikh Abdellatif Deryan's office in Beirut and was offered a white shawl to cover her blonde hair.
The National Front candidate promptly refused and made a brief statement to journalists before leaving.
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"The highest Sunni authority in the world had not had this requirement, so I have no reason to," Le Pen said, referring to her 2015 visit to Al-Azhar, the prestigious Egyptian institution of Sunni Islamic learning.
She said she had told Deryan's office on Monday that she would not don a veil: "They did not cancel the meeting, so I thought they would accept that I will not wear the scarf."
"They wanted to impose this on me, to present me with a fait accompli. Well, no one presents me with a fait accompli," the candidate said.
Deryan heads Dar al-Fatwa, the highest Sunni authority in Lebanon.
In a statement on Tuesday, the body said "its press office had informed the presidential candidate, through one of her assistants, of the need to cover her head when she meets his eminence, according to the protocol assumed by Dar al-Fatwa".
"Dar al-Fatwa officials were surprised by her refusal to conform to this well-known rule," the statement said.
Fewer than a dozen protesters gathered near Lebanon's Zaytuna Bay on Tuesday afternoon to protest against Le Pen's visit.
"From Beirut to Damascus to Paris to Washington, fascists flock together," one placard read.
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