Pretending in order to avoid Haram

[*Yasmin*]

Assalam 3lkeum wra7matu Allahi wbrakatu..

My Korean friend converted few months ago, she still hasn't told her father about her conversion since he's not an open-minded person and has drinking problem not to mention that he has a very corrupted view about Islam and thinks Muslims are terrorists!, she wants to tell him but she thinks it's not the proper time for telling him the truth.
Her problem these days is that she'll be going to her hometown very soon again, and she doesn't know what to do regarding eating with her family whenever they have food or go to a restaurant because they have started to order chicken and beef as an alternative to pork (she told them she has "allegry" to pork at first) but since they still order non-halal meat, she thought about going further in her hiding the truth and pretend that she's a vegetarian.
so her muslim friends told her that she should not pretend to be a vegetarian since she's not a real vegetarian, and that's considered as lying and lying is Haram.
she says that it's kind of hard to eat anything there, and that makes her feel practising Islam is so hard.

so what should she do?
and do you know if it's allowed to pretend in situations like these in order to avoid Haram ?

[جوري]

she can say she prefers vegetarian meals which is obviously not a lie, since anyone would prefer Halal over Haram.. it is just a matter of wording.. or she can cite the cruel ways the animals are electrocuted as a reason to be turned off from meat which is also not a lie..

:w:

[*Yasmin*]

thanks sister Bluebell for your reply :), may Allah reward you :)

if i'm allowed to be kind of out off-topic, i would like to ask about something two of my friends do, which was raised in my head after you have mentioned wording

there was an election in our region and people tended to ask each other(before and after the election) for whom they voted /are going to vote (they even ask in a very specific way for which the answer is supposed to be: yes or no and some ppl ask others to swear by the Quran if they have voted for x or z !!!) and it's rude/unacceptable to reject answering (accepting everything is kind of tradtion in our region !!!!),so to avoid "lying" and at the same time to answer the question, last sunday my friend told me in order to avoid "lying" she put all the elected name's cards in the voting envelope then took out the elected name's cards leaving one card in the envelope (the actual person for whom she voted)before putting it in the voting box, so when some asks her did you vote for x she says: wallahi i put his name's card in the envelope. so after they hear that they think that she has voted to x even though in real she has voted to z !
It's mind boggling , i mean i regard this as being wicked/malicious, and if someone said such thing to me i would regard it as lying .. but is it lying in reality?!

another friend, when she doesn't want to answer a question, tends to think about other ways of interpreting it (even though in her deep heart she knows exactly what is the real meaning of the question) so she answers it according interpreting it according the best way for her to answer.
and the thing is she's convinced she doesn't lie this way.
-what is lying then?