France's National Front party leader Marine Le Pen sparked controversy on Tuesday by for a meeting with Lebanon's grand mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian.
"You can pass on my respects to the grand mufti, but I will not cover myself up," the far-right leader said to the media pack.
But Le Pen's decision to cancel the meeting, rather than donning the scarf offered to her by one of the grand mufti's aides, has been labelled a media stunt.
According to the grand mufti's media team, Le Pen knew ahead of time she would be required to wear the scarf.
Melbourne University international politics researcher Dr Maryse Helbert told SBS she believed the snub was "staged" and part of a "political strategy" by Le Pen to gain support ahead of the first round of France's presidential election on April 23.
Dr Helbert said the snub would like help Le Pen garner favour among female voters.
"I think this is part of the whole political strategy and political campaign in order to reach out and appeal to new voters because if you contextualise what’s happening right now in France, prior to the presidential elections, Marine Le Pen is quite sure to be at the first round of the election with 26 per cent of the vote," she said.
"In order to win the presidential election, she has to appeal to a wider audience of voters; she needs to appeal to a wider set of voters. And in order to do that, one way to do it, is to do what she did yesterday night by refusing to wear the veil.
"At the national level, yes it may well work because people, women in particular, are going to see her as standing for women’s rights."
Corruption allegations
Dr Helbert said she believes the headscarf incident was also a strategic diversion away from corruption claims against Le Pen.
"I’m actually quite convinced that this is part of that strategy," she said.
Le Pen is under fire in her homeland after allegations surfaced from the European Union anti-fraud agency (OLAF) in December claiming that she orchestrated to pay two of her parliamentary staffers with EU funds for work they didn't do.
Despite these allegations, and Dr Helbert said it's likely she wouldn't lose any support.
"It’s because Marine Le Pen has been able to, in the last 10 years, to portray herself as the victim of the media in France," she said.
"The victim of the police and the victim of the media. And among voters, who are very faithful and very disciplined, it does not seem to impact on them whatsoever."
"I think it was staged in order to accomplish political points, one of them being appealing to new voters and lessen the conversation on corruption."
Dr Helbert suggested Le Pen is facing a tough battle, as France's other major parties could team up to oust Le Pen before the second round of votes.
“I don’t think she will be able to (win the election), you do see from the polls that she will have a lot of trouble in the second round of the presidential election," Dr Helbert said.
"What we call in France ‘the anyone but Le Pen’ (campaign) will work very well. That is every political party but the National Front are going to call to vote against Marine Le Pen, and it may work very well."
Le Pen is on a four-day visit to Lebanon, where she already met Christian President Michel Aoun and Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.
