Good for her! The potential next leader of France, Marine LePen, got it right the other day when she went to talk with Lebanon’s Grand Mufti cleric (who is Sunni Muslim) and refused to wear a headscarf for her meeting.
The French press had a field day with this story; newspaper after newspaper called LePen racist, thoughtless, offensive to Muslims and many other names, despite Michelle Obama committing the same alleged offense when former President Obama went to meet King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
The fact of the matter is that as the head of a secular Western state, LePen is free — and likely should be expected — to wear the “uniform” of her country, which at this point in time doesn’t even unofficially include a headscarf — far from it.
In fact, the percentage of the French population that’s Muslim currently is only roughly five percent; even if LePen’s background included devotion to a Muslim faith (it doesn’t), simply from a representational standpoint, she couldn’t be expected to wear a headscarf based purely on demographic numbers.
But her wearing of Western garb also might have sent a message that the values of Western society — including allowing women to wear whatever they choose to — “trump” those of a faith that mandates women to wear one (or any) particular item of clothing at all times. Watch as Styx Hexen Hammer breaks it down eloquently for viewers.