Muslims in France

Sex,

lies and

secularism

RARELY has a judicial verdict in a civil court set off so much argument. But the annulment of the marriage of two French Muslims in Lille, granted because the bride falsely claimed to be a virgin, has prompted an outcry, culminating in a riotous parliamentary debate on June 3rd. The verdict touched a raw nerve in France, mixing complex questions of sexual equality, secularism and Islam.

On paper, the case has nothing to do with religion. The groom, an engineer, applied for an annulment because his bride, a student nurse, had lied to him about her virginity. Under the French civil code, an annulment can be granted “if there was a mistake about the person or the essential qualities of the person”. The judge declared the marriage void since it was “founded on a lie about her virginity”, which the bride acknowledged, and this constituted an “essential quality” in the eyes of both parties. The bride did not contest the annulment.

Yet the verdict was baffling. Lawyers were at a loss to explain why virginity, even if lied about, is an “essential quality”. The judge, said Ségolène Royal, the former Socialist presidential candidate, would never have agreed to the annulment had a case about false virginity been brought by a woman. The uproar was louder because the couple are Muslim. Fadela Amara, the (Muslim) junior minister for inner cities, who has previously campaigned to defend women from traditionalist pressures, called it “a fatwa against the emancipation of women”. Elisabeth Badinter, a feminist and left-wing philosopher, said she was “ashamed” of the French judicial system, and added that “women's sexuality is a private affair”. The verdict, she added, would force ever more Muslim girls to seek plastic surgery to reconstruct their hymens.

Most intriguing of all is the stance of Rachida Dati, the justice minister, born to north African Muslim parents. As a young woman, she had her own marriage annulled, after agreeing to it to please her family. Initially she backed the judgment, arguing that it would protect the woman, who seemed to want a quick separation. This week, however, she changed her mind, and sent the case back for review. Amid heckling in parliament, she accused the Socialists of abandoning young girls to the rule of “big brothers” when they were in power.
The case may not have been about religion. But it has exposed the sensitivities of the secular French republic, home to Europe's biggest Muslim population, about the right balance to strike between respect for Islamic tradition and a firm assertion of French law.