Marine Le Pen walks out of meeting in Lebanon after refusing to wear veil

[roseshippy]

So what do we think about this, aside from matters about Le Pen's wider politics.

edition.cnn.com/2017/02/21/europe/marine-le-pen-headscarf-lebanon-grand-mufti/

And this, the Swedish government which staged this photo op about Trump's male government:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/08/donald-trump-feminist-sweden-swedish

in veils in Iran:

www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/13/swedens-feminist-government-criticized-for-wearing-headscarves-in-iran/

Is it a case of their venue/their country, their option to tell women what to wear? Or no.

I seriously just could not do it (wear the veil). I will forego touring anywhere that demands I cover my head.

I love Marjane Satrapi's depiction of when women were made to wear the veil. The cool feminist position now is that it's about freedom of choice. Back then, women were more likely to highlight the oppression of the veil.

Also, I loved that photo!

I'm mostly just annoyed that the mufti gave Le Pen the opportunity to grandstand as the great liberator of women, which I don't believe one bit. It's especially ridiculous as most Lebanese women don't veil anyway, it is in no way required by law and he just made a bit of a tit of himself since he must see and deal with unveiled women all the time.

I suspect he just didn't want to meet her but he could have come up with a much better excuse which didn't paint her as a hero. I think that she did the right thing on this occasion, much as it pains me to say it.

Hmm I feel the same way about this as I do about the Daily Mail becoming all feminist when it's suddenly foreign men groping women but it's "lad's banter" when it's British men.

If only the Swedish had taken their opportunity when they had it. Le Pen is right to reject a requirement for a veil.
Why are the left and the liberals forgoing the opportunity to take an ethical stance and leaving this to the far right, whose motivations are far from principled in many cases?

I'm sure le pen anticipated and engineered this and now the narrative of headscarves and sexist oppression is being controlled by people whose primary concern isn't really women's rights at all.

Not sure of the significance of the Swedish photo op in the context of the veil discussion?

Bit of a storm in a teacup though, isn't it? Angela Merkel's defence minister did the same in December last year, and the article notes that Michelle Obama, Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton, Condoleeza Rice and Laura Bush have all done the same.

Le Pen is right to reject a requirement for a veil

There is no requirement for a veil. I have travelled all over the Lebanon - most Lebanese women do not wear a hijab and certainly don't expect non-Muslim women to do so.

Falling for this is falling for Le Pen's cynical manipulation of feminism to stir up Islamaphobia.