France's far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen refused to wear a headscarf for her meeting with Lebanon's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian. Picture: Anwar Amro / AFP Photo

IN A city where mini skirts, cleavage and bling are de rigeur, where beach parties and racy music rule, a woman has made international headlines for refusing to wear a headscarf.

Beirut, once known as The Paris of The Middle East — sophisticated, socially progressive, fashion conscious, is one of the few places in the Arab world where the hijab is not compulsory. A woman can dress any way she pleases and no one bats an eyelid. But not when that woman is far right French politician, Marine Le Pen.

Le Pen knew full well that by fronting up to a scheduled meeting with Lebanon’s top Sunni Muslim Cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Latif Derian, head bare and declining the pretty white headscarf she was offered on arrival, with cameras capturing every move, that it would not go down well.

The looks says it all. Marine Le Pen was offered a headscarf and refused to wear it, so her meeting with the Grand Mufti was cancelled. Picture: AP Photo/Hussein MallaSource:AP

The meeting was called off as a result. “You can pass on my respects to the Grand Mufti”, she said. “But I will not cover myself up”.

Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front (FN), has been called The Donald Trump of France for her nationalist leanings and anti immigration policies, campaigning on a “French first” platform for jobs and housing.

The presidential candidate is calling for an extension of France’s so-called ‘burqa ban’ (which already includes all face-covered veils), to extend to all religious headgear and burkinis, and the banning of street prayers, which she once likened to an ‘occupation’ of French territory.

What better way to spruik her platform of secularism and the banning of said headscarves and other religious symbols in public places back home. But her seemingly mild gesture of shunning the hijab has done far more than that.

“She’s very gutsy, that woman”, says Australian Lebanese journalist, Mary Saliba, who covered the Arab Spring for the Al Jazeera Network, from Qatar.

“It’s a bold and assertive move showing she’s prepared to remain defiant against religious conservatism, enforcing that her individualism, choice and power as a woman to refute conditions imposed by others is unshakable. She’s sending a strong message to all those pushing for religious extremism and violence across the Arab that ‘all your extremism, your violence, your barbaric conduct is not going to intimidate me in subjecting to your ideals about how I should conduct myself as a woman’”.

The response to Le Pen’s decision has been mixed.

Michelle Obama made similar ripples when she stepped out without a headscarf on a state visit to Saudi Arabia in 2015, where, unlike Lebanon, it’s forbidden for women to appear in public without their heads covered (although it’s not mandatory for foreign women).

Her attire trended on Twitter, and, for once, not in a good way, prompting hashtags like “immodest” and “not veiled”.

Michelle Obama caused controversy when she didn’t wear a headscarf during her visit to Saudi Arabia in 2015. Picture: AP Photo/Carolyn KasterSource:AP

But, Saliba, for one, applauds both these women and strongly believes the stance by Le Pen is a positive (yet small) step towards equality in the Middle East.

“What she’s done is a great thing for women in the Arab world. Many Lebanese women would have seen it as a stance against male authority and patriarchy, which dominates not just Islamic sects but all faiths. Le Pen’s boldness would inspire young women in conservative societies and families to see that they do have a choice. Not just about how they dress but about how they live their lives”.

The problem is, many still don’t.

The common argument that surfaces around every debate of the dress codes of Muslim women (from hijabs to burqas) is that many choose to dress this way. It is not oppression, a stifling custom of submission imposed upon them by the ultra conservative patriarchy, but freedom. That Muslim women are making their own discerning choices honouring tradition and religion which is no one’s business but their own.

And for many, of course, that is the case. But Mary knows from experience there are still plenty of women, of all religions, who are coerced or forced to dress (and live) a certain way, 15 year olds in ‘arranged marriages’, facing a “pressure to comply” to which there is no safe or viable alternative.

As western women, we’re keen to show respect when we travel: Modesty in Hindu temples, heads veiled at The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, a salwar kameez in Pakistan.

Incidentally, when I stepped out in Pakistan and parts of Turkey in my regular attire (hair in a ponytail) I was jeered and leered at, pebbles thrown at my friend and I in the tourist precinct of Instanbul. Isolated incidents, perhaps. But torment a simple headscarf would have avoided.

But it’s a minefield. Hillary Clinton was chastised for wearing a hijab when US Secretary of State (which she did on and off). Our Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop was called to justify her decision to wear a headscarf on an official visit to Iran in 2015.

Le Pen is all too happy to justify her decision not to.

And it’s no coincidence that she chose Beirut to stage her mini protest, according to Mary Saliba.

“It’s like a symbol in the Arab world of women’s freedom and progressions”, says Saliba.

“What happens in Beirut is leading the women’s movement. Many women, Muslims and Christians, are inspired by Lebanese female freedom. They look to that city as to what’s possible”.

One small act of defiance by a French presidential aspirant may have a far greater impact than one thwarted meeting.

Jacinta Tynan is a Sky News Presenter and author. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.