Reuters
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A woman who was blamed by French courts for her divorce because she did not have sex with her husband has won an appeal at Europe’s top human rights court, the court said Thursday.Women in France Reopened the debate on the rights of
The French woman – identified as Ms HW, born in 1955 – took her case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2021 after exhausting legal avenues in France nearly a decade after her divorce.
The ECHR ruled that the French courts had violated a woman’s right to respect for her private and family life.
“In the present case, the court could not identify any reason justifying this intervention by public authorities in the field of sexuality,” it said in a statement.
The ECHR’s ruling comes amid a period of soul-searching in France following the high-profile case of Giselle Pellicote, who accused her husband of drugging his wife and raping dozens of men. He was found guilty of calling his home. The case shocked the world, rekindled the thorny debate about women’s rights in France and made Gisele Pelicot a feminist icon.
In a statement released by her lawyer, Lelia Mohsen, HW celebrated her legal victory.
“I hope this decision will be a turning point in the fight for women’s rights in France,” she said. “Now it is important that France, like other European countries, such as Portugal or Spain, take concrete steps to end this culture of rape and promote a real culture of consent and mutual respect.”
Mohsin said the ECHR’s decision has no effect on HW’s divorce, which is final. However, he said it would have a major impact on French law, preventing French judges from making similar divorce decisions in the future.
“This decision marks the end of marital responsibility and the antiquated, principled vision of the family,” it said in a statement. “Courts will finally stop interpreting French law through the lens of canon law and imposing responsibility on women for sex within marriage.”
France’s Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, which represented the French government in the matter, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The woman, who married her husband in 1984 and had four children with him, wanted a divorce, but found the break-up to be unjustified intrusion into her personal life and violation of her physical integrity. was accused.
She cited health problems and threats of violence from her husband as reasons why she had not had an intimate relationship since 2004.
The fact that one of the couple’s children was mentally and physically disabled added to the strain on the marriage.
HW, who is from Le Chesnay near Paris, said she was shocked by the decision, which “legalized a family environment where women’s privacy and dignity are ignored and is insulted.”
HW’s case was supported by two French women’s activism groups.
One of them, head of the Feminist Collective Against Rape, Emmanuelle Piet, said she was delighted.
“MS. We spent 15 years fighting this war, and it ended in victory, bravo,” he said. “When you are forced to have sex within a marriage, it is rape.”
