marriage annulled for lie on virginity

[buckthesystem]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...0-29677,00.html

Marriage annulled for lie on virginity Font Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print June 06, 2008

PARIS: The bride said she was a virgin. When her new husband discovered that was a lie, he went to court to annul the marriage - and a French judge agreed.

The ruling ending the Muslim couple's union has stunned France and raised concerns the country's secular values are losing ground to cultural traditions from its immigrant communities.

The decision exposed the silent shame borne by some Muslim women who transgress customs demanding proof of virginity on the wedding night.

The court ruled the woman had misrepresented herself as avirgin and that, in this particular marriage, virginity was a prerequisite.

But in treating the case as a breach of contract, the ruling was decried by critics who said it undermined women's rights. Marriage, they said, was reduced to the status of a commercial transaction in which women could be discarded by husbands claiming to have discovered hidden defects in them.

The court decision "is a real fatwa against the emancipation and liberty of women. We are returning to the past," said Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara, daughter of immigrants from Muslim North Africa.

The outcry has been unrelenting since word of the April 1 decision in the closed-door trial in Lille was made public lastweek by the newspaper Liberation.

In its judgment, the tribunal said the 2006 marriage had been ended based on "an error in the essential qualities" of the bride, "who had presented herself as single and chaste".

Justice Minister Rachida Dati, whose parents were born in North Africa, initially shrugged off the ruling, but the public clamour forced her to ask the prosecutor's office this week to lodge an appeal. What began as a private matter "concerns all the citizens of our country and notably women", a statement from her ministry said.

The hitch is that the young woman and the man are opposed to an appeal, according to their lawyers. The names of the woman, a student in her 20s, and the man, an engineer in his 30s, have not been disclosed.

The woman's lawyer, Charles-Edouard Mauger, said she was distraught by the dragging out of the case. He quoted her as saying: "I don't know who's trying to think in my place. I didn't ask for anything ... I wasn't the one who asked for the media attention, for people to talk about it, and for this to last so long."

The French Government has fought to maintain strong secular traditions as demographics change. Up to five million Muslims live in the country of 64million, the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

France passed a law in 2004 banning Muslim headscarves and other ostentatious religious signs from classrooms, causing an uproar in the Muslim world.

Critics contend another law on the books is being used to effectively condone the custom requiring a woman to enter marriage as a virgin, and prove it with bloodstained sheets on her wedding night.

Article 180 of the civil code states that when a couple enters into a marriage, if the "essential qualities" of a spouse are misrepresented, then "the other spouse can seek the nullity of the marriage". Examples of annulled marriages include a husband found to be impotent and a wife who was a prostitute, said the groom's lawyer, Xavier Labbee.

Mr Labbee denied the woman's virginity was at issue.

"The question is not one of virginity. The question is one of lying," he said.

[anitarose]

Hmmmm...wonder if I could have my 16 year marriage annulled based on a lie too.

a.

[Guest]

[peaches]

snap! you have to prove it with blood stained sheets???

[Heavenguard]

The problem with bloodstained sheets is that its not a foolproof way of proving virginity. The, er, part in question can tear due to other activities having nothing to do with sex. It can also be surgically "repaired", although I imagine there are a very few people who do it.

But an annulment is often granted based on the idea that if one person misrepresents him or herself in a way to their partner such that if the partner knew the truth, the partner would not have married them at all. The fact that chastity is required by the Islamic faith just means that a Muslim man would require this of his wife. But what of a conservative man? Though rare in this society for a man to require his wife to be a virgin, it's perfectly possible and reasonable, still. If he filed for a marriage annulment for the same reason, I imagine it would have been granted him.