Lara Marlowereports from Paris on the overturning of a ruling by a Lille court that caused public uproar
FRENCH JUSTICE struck a blow against conservative Islam yesterday when an appeals court in Douai reversed an earlier decision to annul a marriage because the bride was not a virgin.
The bridegroom, identified only as Monsieur X, and the bride, Madame Y, were married in the northern town of Mons-en-Baroeul, near Lille, in July 2006. He is a computer programmer in his early 30s. She is a nurse in her early 20s. Both are Muslims of Moroccan origin.
On the wedding night, Monsieur X discovered that Madame Y had lied when she told him she was a virgin. He insisted that the marriage be annulled "because it started with a lie". She initially resisted, but relented because she feared drawn-out legal proceedings.
Monsieur X based his case on article 180 of the civil code, which provides for the annulment of a marriage in the event of "error concerning the person or about the essential qualities of the person".
Fewer than 100 marriages are annulled in France each year. Annulments have been granted because one of the spouses hid impotence, sterility, a criminal record, foreign nationality or mental illness. In 2001 a marriage was annulled because a man discovered his bride had been a prostitute; in 2006 because a man hid the fact he was seropositive.
In the case most similar to that of the couple, who were in effect "remarried" by the appeals court yesterday, an annulment was granted because one of the spouses had hidden the fact they were divorced, and could not be married in church.
The Muslim bride and bridegroom both wanted the annulment, which created an uproar when it was made public by the Lille high court on May 29th. Feminists, secular associations and politicians of both left and right expressed outrage. One hundred and fifty members of the European Parliament sent a protest letter to French minister for justice Rachida Dati.
Ms Dati, who is of Algerian-Moroccan Muslim origin, and who years ago was granted an annulment when she realised immediately after marrying she had made a mistake, initially approved the Lille decision on the grounds that it "protected" the persons involved.
Under fire, Ms Dati flip-flopped and told the Douai appeals court to reverse the annulment. "This affair goes beyond the relationship between two people and concerns all the citizens of our country, in particular women," she said.
At a hearing on September 22nd secretary general of the Douai court Eric Vaillant said: "Virginity can in no case constitute an essential quality. It is not possible to obtain an annulment on such a discriminatory basis; this motive is an attack on male-female equality, the right to dispose of one's own body, and human dignity. It would be contrary to public order to grant an annulment on the grounds of non-virginity."
The court encouraged the couple's lawyers to substitute "legitimate motives" - such as the fact they never lived together - for the "discriminatory motive" of the woman's non-virginity. Although this was done, the appeals court was apparently determined to take an unambiguous stand.
The couple have now remained married against their will for two years and four months. Both have left the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. They have two months to appeal to France's supreme court, or they can file for divorce.
Yesterday's decision was the latest in a series of setbacks for conservative French Muslims. Last June the mayor of the town of Vigneux withdrew permission for a municipal gymnasium to be used for a Muslim women's basketball championship when he learned that men would not be allowed as spectators. The sports minister travelled to the town to show support for the mayor.
A Moroccan woman named Faiza Silmi was refused French nationality because she wears the niqab, a veil that covers everything except the eyes. Ms Silmi is married to a Frenchman and has three children. She appealed to the council of state, which, on June 27th, 2008, ruled that she "adopted a radical practice of her religion incompatible with the essential values of the French community, in particular the principle of equality between the sexes".
In late August lawyers for the accused in an armed robbery case requested that their trial be postponed because of "dietary constraints and religious obligations". In other words, the accused were fasting during Ramadan. When the trial was postponed until January, there was such an outcry that the prosecutor denied the delay had anything to do with Ramadan.
These events have occurred against a background of unease about President Nicolas Sarkozy's concept of "positive secularism", which would give a greater role to religion in French society.
French secularists are more vigilant than ever, and the justice system seems eager to reassure them. The decisions on the gymnasium and veiled woman were widely praised, whereas the cases which seemed to accommodate Muslim beliefs were overturned or explained by other criteria.