Virginity, Marriage & France

by Tom Miller

You may have heard about this story, but Time does a great job of summing it up. OK, a woman in France (or Freedom to some Red Staters) was in a really bad marriage. Evidently, her husband reviled her and decided to get an annulment on grounds that she was not a virgin when they married. As a Muslim, this is a spot of a taboo, it’s a husband’s job and relished duty to deflower his bride. The bride assured the groom that she was before their union. Which is not a very clever ruse, it’s like promising someone that you’re really blonde, but maybe she assumed that he knew she was joking.

So the 2 were annulled on the grounds of hymen-status misrepresentation on April 1. The country was whipped into a frenzy at that point. The husband’s argument was that she presented a false ‘bill of goods.’ And no one in the government or the media really like women being reduced to chattel, so the government stepped in. Justice Minister Rachida Dati did not care for the precedent, so she appealed. Unfortunately, the woman in the case just wanted the whole thing to be behind her. Despite the good intentions, the unintended consequences could be severe to the woman and to the government’s tenuous relationship with it’s Muslim population.

Sure, the lower court made the right decision for the wrong reason, i.e. clearly that marriage needed to end, but could have done so under different pretenses but not everyone wants to be the centerpiece of an epic struggle. We wonder when Sarkozy is going to chime in, “I just divorce them, I need no reason.”

So far, Roger Federer hasn’t let the controversy stop his clay court resurgence at the French Open. If it does, expect the Swiss to invade. Or just continue laundering our money and making superior watches.